Experimental #9
by Ganath
Summary: The life of an android throughout the world of DBZ
1. Default Chapter Title

Prelude

Great… just great, I'm screwed. Here I am, running through a forest in the middle of nowhere from some damn bitch that can go several thousand times faster than me. And I'm gonna get a beat down too because I didn't want to go through that weird old guy's 'experiments'. Arguing with the apparent 'master' of some weird chick who's several times stronger than me, can fly, and can throw fireballs. Yeah, I was always known as the smart one.

Then again, can you blame me? Some lady lands in front of me, says I'm perfect, grabs me, and flies off with me. Man, least it was worth it to see her face when I socked that old guy and bolted. His name was 'Dr.Gero' or something like that. I don't care, I just want to get the hell outta here!

"You shouldn't of done that…" SHIIIIITTTT! "Who the hell are you!" I yell. "Why should you care?" she replied. "Let me at least know that much damn you!". "Fine… I'm experimental android #8.". "HA!" I laugh, "That Gero guy doesn't have much imagination, or did you come up with that?". She smiles grimly. Next I know, I have a hole in my left arm. Well, I might run, but she'll catch me anyway, might as well fight. Which is a joke, since I'm almost toppling over from the pain. Of course, I'm out cold before I lift a finger.

PART I: THE BEGINNING

Chapter 1

"Uhhh…". "He's alive!" I hear some guy yell. No shit Sherlock. I open my eyes, ouch, that light sure is bright. But what's more important is, who the hell am I and where am I?

"I am Dr.Gero, and you are my experimental android #9", it's the same guy who yelled in my ear, pretty old looking too. A read out rates his power level at 3, and my mind instantly tells me what a power level is. Well, least he answered one question. "You are made to serve the Red Ribbon army #9, and me of course…" who's he kidding? Why should I listen to him? I don't trust him so far anyway. "I created you, you are mine… I will brief you later." Ok, I guess. "#8! Come here!" "Yes Gero?" "Show #9 around and to his quarters and explain any questions he may have about his systems." "Yes." (Just a note, Gero would have them in cryogenic suspension or something, but there are only two, and he has the space. Plus they are experimental, and he doesn't want to accidentally screw them up with something like suspension, yet).

Next I see some girl, #8 I presume, very nice looking. Black hair parted to sides, cut short. Great figure, 17 years of age, slightly pale with green eyes. Has on a white over shirt and some blue jeans. Power level 0… shouldn't she be dead? Then again, I'm zero too.

Speaking of clothing, maybe I should check what I'm decked out in. Black T-shirt, some slightly baggy blue jeans, hiking boots, and a tan trenchcoat. Not too shabby.

"Hey, #8." I start. "Yeah?" "Why the hell are our power levels at zero?" I ask. "Good question, basically, we're androids, part mechanical. Due to the mechanization, which isn't living, it shows our power level as zero." #8 answers. "So… technically we're dead?" "You could say that."

"Here are your quarters, any more questions?" she asks. "Nope." I respond. "Well, then get used to your surroundings for a while then." fair enough.

Hmm… small room, but not bad. Normal sized bed, closet, mirror and a computer terminal. White walls by the way. Well, not much to get used to, might as well check out the computer.

I also pass by the mirror on the way to the computer terminal. Chestnut brown hair parted to each side, about 6 foot, brown eyes, and about 18 years old. That'll work. Now to the computer.

Lets see here… up comes the operating system. Microsoft Windows 95 it reads. Some part of my mind tells me to hate Microsoft… wait! Where the hell did that come from! Eh… no matter. Not much on here, seems we're to be the grunts. Ah well, thankfully I'm VERY computer literate… delete this blocker, hack this password, take this back door, here we go! "Dr.Gero's Laboratory Mainframe"… certainly sounds interesting. "File 183: Experimental Androids" alright! Now we're getting somewhere. Sue me, I'm curious about my origins…

After skimming through this file, this is what I've discovered:

1. I'm not just merely human based, I was a human and can remember some things of my past life, none of it anything important or helping me find my past identity. Explains that thing on Microsoft…

2. We're damn powerful, you mean not everyone can fling fireballs?

3. We have a titanium endoskeleton. Cool.

4. We have photographic memories (or close to).

5. Later versions will have less and less human emotions and will over themselves. Gee, that sucks.

6. There are only two of us, even though I'm #9. We're actually the 8'th and 9'th androids, but we're the only ones that work.

7. Working on upgrade to eliminate the feeling of pain.

8. Will have all capabilities of past life.

9. We still age, much more slowly than humans do, but we still age. Will require maintenance due to this.

10. We only have to breathe at a fraction of the rate normal humans do, plus we have filters that will convert several other gasses into oxygen and keep out poisonous stuff. Cool.

11. Except for by means of pain, we don't fatigue.

I also find out that #8 was built to be a strategist as well.

Well, I must say, I'm definitely not slaving away for anyone. Then again, I've been conscious, for what? 5 hours? Maybe I should play along… for now.

"Hey, #9! Come on, Gero wants to see you." That was #8. Not like it's hard to remember 2 people.

Chapter 2

"…we must aid the Red Ribbon army in any way." Gero was saying. Sure, whatever, I still don't trust you. First impressions really stick I guess. "But for now, you must be thoroughly tested. Meaning constant training of your abilities for now." Good enough. "You and #8 are free for tonight. Go now."

"So… what now?" I ask #8 as we walk down a hallway. "I usually hunt, to kill time." "Sure, why not?" so we hunted. Lovely outcome, 3 deer, 21 rabbits, and some snakes for jerky. We didn't waste the entire forest, we still wanted some game later. As for the rabbits, well, there are enough of them anyway.

That killed a bunch of time, and we went our separate ways. I stare at the blank walls of my room after spending the rest of the day looking around at the area and meeting other creations. Wasn't all that interesting. Might as well catch some shut eye, seeing as I have no idea what's in store for me tomorrow.

And tomorrow came. Of course, Gero wanted to see #8 and I right away. "#8 has shown remarkable abilities, but we haven't been able to truly test them, as she is well beyond any other fighters immediately available." And this is where I come in, saw that one a mile away "…now I have created another android with at least equal power." Neat, but he sure does have a habit of talking as if we're not there. "You will both go immediately to the training room to spar." And off we go!

"Need any warming up?" #8 asks. "Just a bit…" I reply as I finish stretching and throw some punches into the air. "Ok, let's go!" I say. I boost forward and try an uppercut, which was neatly dodged by #8. Of course, that was according to plan, my left knee was about to go into her rib, too bad her fist got in the way of my face. We stepped back and this time she took the offensive. I blocked her initial volley of punches and kicks and countered with my own. We pretty much ended up with no scratches.

Then we actually fought. I powered up and blasted forward full strength aiming to plant my shoulder in her jaw. She boosted out of the way. I used a beam to do a 90 degree turn and kicked #8 in the gut. It stunned her, but not enough for her to grab my leg and slam me into the ceiling. I pulled out and started shooting machine gun finger blasts at her, which she blocked. Then she was just standing there. Well, if she wants to give me an opening… and my fist went right through her. A hologram! I heard the movement before I felt the elbow on my neck pushing me to the ground.

#8 had me pinned. Then, I threw all my weight into my legs and kicked out from under, but she was gone before I could do anything. I saw her out of the corner of my eye and repositioned myself to face her. Then I remembered my coat…

As she dashed forward, I took off my coat while sidestepping and put it over her face, effectively blinding her. I took this opportunity to land several punches in her stomach and face before she kneed me in the groin and threw the coat off. Damn that hurt. I wish Gero had gotten the anti-pain thing done before he brought me to life.

Well, least she had some blood on the corner of her mouth. She waited for me to come, and come I did. Only to be tripped, which really wasn't a problem since I can fly. Shame for me that was only a distraction. I caught a knuckle in my throat, temporarily gagging me. #8 then punched me repeatedly in the ribs, not breaking the titanium skeleton though, but it sure stung. Finally, I was able to breathe again, and used #8 as a platform to kick off from to get away.

Almost simultaneously, we charged up our beams and fired. A beam battle ensued. While quite skilled, I couldn't overpower her experience and jump in training over me, and I was flung across the room as the beam hit me… lights out.

Chapter 3

I open my eyes and find myself in the infirmary. Well, I sure lost that sparring session. And as I found, this was the start of the common day…

Each day we trained and sparred. Gero was very pleased, like I gave a shit. We were getting stronger of course, but that's not what was important, even though I started to top out as strongest. What was important was what I found through my computer. About Dr.Gero's numerous sadistic experiments. While very interesting, are generally pretty fucked up things to do to people. I'm glad my room isn't near Gero's "Torture Room", I'd never be able to put up with the screaming at night. Gero also isn't ashamed to talk of his experiments, particularly us, which I ask him questions about regularly. He won't explain how he was able to get our ability to read power levels though. It's not in the texts about the android project either.

One thing that made me happy though, was that #8 had the same thoughts of Gero as I did. We thought Gero was very messed up, I mean, we have no problem with killing someone clean, but unwarranted torture? Not to mention Dr.Gero is someone you wouldn't want to trust. He has an obsession with his work, and could care less about the rest.

Another interesting thing was that #8 and I seemed to get closer together. Very nice and all, but hasn't really amounted to anything.

Also, I found a good way to pass time. I found some metallic materials around the laboratory. I'm now using them to make a sword.

Of course, I plan to get away from Gero. But for now… I guess I have to play along…

Chapter 4

One month later…

Things are really looking up for me right now. Seems Gero trusts me a shit load more than I trust him. He's also has decided to help me out on my interest on the android experiments. Access to all files pertaining to the android project are now open to me, like I couldn't get to them anyway. But what really made me happy was that I know have my own work room adjacent to my room so I can test out upgrades to the android project since he's put his android project on hold. I've already gotten rid of the feeling of pain in #8 and I. I've also upgraded our abilities to read power levels to be able to read current power, estimated full possible power, and the power of androids of our version. I read at 750 and #8 at 725. I'll soon be able to increase our power levels tenfold with a new upgrade I'm working on.

That sword is finished by the way. Well, swords actually. Made two, gave one to #8. You could say it livened up the sparring sessions a bit. They're shaped like katanas, and we've been practicing to channel our ki through them. The results are great so far.

I've done some searching on possible escapes from this planet. One thing I've found, is that a long while ago, some capsule crash landed. That's about all I know, since Dr.Gero's file wasn't too detailed on the subject. But I've got to be able to find it.

From what I see of this world, there isn't really much need for fighters like #8 and I. That's why I want to leave.

"So, whaddya think of the place #8?" We're on temporary leave, supposedly on a training mission, but it's just an excuse for us to get away from Gero. And an excuse for me to find that ship. We're currently on a tiny island of Hawaii, currently laying down and relaxing on the beach. Far away from Gero in Japan.

"A lot better than the laboratory, that's for sure." she responds. By the way, by now, #8 and I have gotten much closer together. To the point of casual lovers if you so insist. Hmm… mechanical love. Kinky.

"Hell yes. Now on to more important matters. You still thinking on how to get away from the laboratory permanently?" I start.

"A bit, but I haven't been able to come up with a plan. It'd be easier if he didn't have trackers on us and self-destruct mechanisms." Heh, Gero doesn't trust us THAT much yet…

"Not a problem, I'll be able to get around that, and even off of this planet soon for that matter…"

"WAIT A SECOND! Off this planet!" She yells.

"Yes."

"Why would we do that and how might we do that?" #8 inquires.

I give a big fat grin and begin "Well, the reason why is that there really isn't much of a market for fighters. Except to stay with Gero maybe, which neither of us want."

"So, why must we fight?"

"Face it." I reply "We have other skills, but we were MADE for fighting."

"True…"

"We might as well put it to good use. And the universe is big, I'm sure there's a market for mercenaries out there somewhere."

"Hmph! Too bad we have the slight problem of getting a space craft!" #8 sarcastically replies.

"That's where my plan gets better. Did you know that an alien landed on earth a long while ago?"

"Honto?" now she sounds interested.

"Damn straight. And if there's an alien, then it had to come in some sort of vehicle, right?"

"So where is it?" she excitedly asks.

"Eh… I'm still working on that…" I say meekly.

"Ah well, we've got it planned out. I'll leave it up to you then. Now, you up for a fight?" #8 says as she stretches.

"Always."

Chapter 5

Two months later…

YES! I finally found it! That damn spaceship that's been eluding me all this time. I found it 5 days ago near some wrecked old house. Looked like it'd been stomped on by a giant monkey or something.

It was almost right under my nose too. Seems Gero knew about it, but hadn't worked on it. The only thing he did work on was some weird eyepiece that can read power levels. That's where he came up with how to read power levels.

The self-destruct mechanisms had been removed 3 days ago along with the locators. I made a pair of external locators so that Gero won't be suspicious, and we can ditch the locators when we blow this joint.

Of course, I had to modify the ship a bit, since it was originally a one man capsule. It was for a mercenary that was sent to clear the planet. He died in the crash landing, pretty sad. But then again, whoever hired him probably knew how powerful these humans are.

What's best though, is the wealth of info on the capsule's computer.

I found two coordinates already put into the computer. And they're perfect for our needs. One goes to the home planet of the "Saiyajin" called "Vegitasei" and the second coordinate would take us to the main base of the "Freezer Mercenary Corps". The Freezer Mercenary Corps is closer, and seems most promising. We're leaving today. I've packed all of my data I've gathered these past months.

On some other notes. #8 and I have become yet closer and have enjoyed the greatness of life called sex.

Also, I've gotten our power levels up to around 10,575 for me and 10,225 for #8.

"So… you ready to blow this hell hole?" I ask #8 as we float well above the laboratory.

"Naturally #9." she replies as she starts to leave, her hair flowing behind her. She grew it out a while ago.

"Wait! There's something I must do first…" I grin maliciously as I charge up a beam and point it at the laboratory and fire.

"There, I'll let Gero live just 'cause he gave us life. But this will set him back BIG time." I say. "Now, we go." and we head for the ship…

I set the coordinates. Ditch the locators, as well as crush them. We find our seats, I start up the capsule, and it closes. And off we go to the "Freezer Mercenary Corps"! Then the cryogenic sleep sets in…


	2. Chapter 2

PART II: MERCENARY'S INITIATION

Chapter 6

We awaken. "So… are we there?" asks #8. "Not quite." I respond as I look out the window. I see nothing but space… well, except for that huge space station that we're going towards.

"That must be it." I say as I point at the station.

"Space Capsule #94862, respond and identify yourselves." the radio crackles.

"Uh… yeah." Hadn't figured on this, but then again, was I just gonna walk in? "You guys hiring?"

"… where'd you get this shuttle?" the radioman responds after a little bit. Gee, aren't I the slick one? Here goes… "Found it stranded, we decided to patch it up and use it ourselves." "Where was it stranded?" Now it's time to pull out the bullshit… "We were planet hopping, our own capsule was damaged, and we found this one. I don't know the planet, but it was pretty wasted." "… Bring them in." Damn, can't believe that worked!

Then again, they didn't fully trust us as I found out shortly. No guns were pointed at us, but there were soldiers everywhere. Of course, they were mostly around the 700 range, nothing to #8 and I.

"Come." A man beckons at us. Must be the radioman, sounds the same. We follow. I notice a curious thing, all of the armor seems very similar. But I just put that off as a military identification thing, even though this is supposed to be a mercenary organization. But what was really interesting, was that all the armor seemed to fit everyone perfectly, and I mean PERFECTLY. There were also plenty of those glass eyepieces like the one from the capsule.

Seems 700 is about the common range for these guys. They all seem like grunts though. But there were some higher up people. I saw numbers like 1500, 3000, 5000, and even 9500. The higher leveled people didn't have any visible cannons though.

"Enter." The radioman points at a room. We enter. And I see… a short white/purple alien guy with a long tail. He's also flanked by two body guards, one fat and pink with spiked (literally) hair, and the other a well built green guy with light green hair and a white cape.

As silly as they may have looked, their power levels were no joke. Fatty ranked 15,000, and the green dude was also showing 15,000, yet with a hidden max of 24,000. But scariest of all was the fragile looking white guy. He ranked at about 150,000 with a hidden power level of at least 700,000! I couldn't even get an accurate reading!

"So…" The white alien begins, "I hear you are interested in joining my mercenary organization." "Yes." I reply.

"Just so you understand, we aren't entirely… mercenaries." "Oh?" #8 voiced. "Yes, we're more like planet brokers. We take planets and sell them." "Good enough." I say. I'm starting to wonder, does this guy personally interview all applicants? That sounds pretty dumb, but then again, he does have the power to back it up…

"But, may I so inquire of you an answer, how you expect to amount to anything if you have a power level of merely zero?" The white alien asks. His (Her? It?) bodyguards snicker. I grin "Have a guard come in then. I would take one of your bodyguards, but they are beyond us." I say deadpan.

"Very well. Dodoria, call in Kewie." The white one says to Fatty, who is apparently Dodoria. "Heh, this will be amusing."

A few minutes later, a short purple guy comes in and kneels down, with on his head what seems to be… nostrils? "What do you wish of me, Master Freeza?" So… the white guy's Freeza, eh?

"I want you to test the abilities of these strangers, start with the male one." "My pleasure Freeza. They don't even show up on the scouters." Heh, speaking of which, this Kewie guy only ranks 5000, well below me.

"Come." I beckon to Kewie. "Bring it on." And so he did. He flew forward and tried to punch me right in the face. An obvious distraction move. I sidestepped, grabbed his arm, and blocked his knee that was flying at my gut. Didn't I try this a while back? I used Kewie's arm to fling him onto the floor, where I could get some leverage.

Now Kewie was on the floor, wearing my boot on his back, and with me holding his arm in a very uncomfortable position. Even though he's thoroughly embarrassed by so far losing to some stranger without a power level, he wasn't through yet. He tries a point blank ki blast, I didn't have enough time to put up a ki shield. So I just blocked it with my other hand. I think that tickled. Well, time to finish this, so I blast him in the back of the head with my own beam, but not killing him.

Dodoria seems to be in awe, but Freeza and the other guard aren't quite as impressed. But they do seem interested. "How did you do that?" asks the green one. "You and Freeza should know that you can conceal your power level." "Yes…" Freeza mutters. "Nonetheless, Zarbon does have a point. We can conceal power levels, but to get them to rate zero is very interesting." Hmm… seems people with a power level concealed to zero is unheard of. They also seem to not be able to read estimated maximum power levels. Must be why he chose to see us personally. "Very well, you're hired." Freeza says sharply. "May I ask for your names?" Freeza inquires. "I am #9 and she" I point to #8 "is #8." "Interesting names, to say the least." "Zarbon, call the manager of the barracks and have him show these two to their living space. And get them some armor too." "Yes, master." Zarbon responded. "Oh, and by the way…" Freeza starts "I hope it's not too much of an inconvenience for you if I ask for another interview with you." "Not at all." I say.

Chapter 7

Ok. So it's one room. #8 complained slightly, but I sure as hell didn't! Freeza must be male, I think jokingly, he understands what I want. But hey, the room here is bigger than that at the laboratory. It has two beds, a washroom for humanoid specifications, closet, and best of all… a computer terminal! Damn I'm glad I never brought up I could hack through computers, or I'd probably never have one. Unfortunately, this new operating system takes some getting used to, but thankfully, it's in 'basic', which is the English language. I was confused at first, expecting an alien language (referring to when #9 first heard the radioman), but I just figured some alien or alien crap landed on earth, and a segment of humanity used it as their language.

We also have this new armor. Personally, I'd rather wear my normal clothes, but the armor is standard dress. Besides, it offers protection, practicality over self image. And of course, those eyepieces called scouters, which are worthless to us except the built in radio.

This room is in the quarters with the 'Saiyajins', since we are very similar biologically, except their hair sticks straight up and they have monkey tails around their waists. It's a pretty small area though, since most of the Saiyajins are on their home planet of Vegitasei. But there are three that come here regularly. A very long haired kid, less than ten years old, named Radditz at 1200. A huge almost bald man named Nappa with a power level of 3000 whose hair looks like a dead animal instead. A short spike haired Prince Vegita who's about Radditz's age and is rather young to be ranking at about 5000. Not bad. But that Vegita kid shows much promise…

Anyhow, it's getting late, at least, I think it is seeing as there is no sun to go by. But lights are dimming in this quadrant of the quarters, which I guess means it's getting late. Time to get some sleep, and maybe some ass too. Hey, I'm straight.

Chapter 8

I woke up early, I have to get used to 30 hour days, the standard day. Didn't get any of #8, but that's ok. Guess I'll get dressed in that armor and walk around a bit.

Now that I'm holding this armor, I notice it seems pretty damn small. How the hell am I supposed to wear this? Maybe if I stretch it I can get it half way over my torso and look like a queer.

WOAH! What the fuck! Damn, no wonder it's a perfect fit for everyone. Fits to your form perfectly. Damn nice material, have to look into it. Lets see now, where can I strap on my sword? Seems to fit on my side, that'll work. Hey, I don't look half bad, I still think my normal clothes look better though.

Where were the training facilities again? Some guy said down the hall and go right… I think. So I try it out. Lo and behold, here it is. Hey, there are those Saiyajins. Might as well see if they need a training partner.

"Hey guys. Need a sparring partner?" I ask, right to the point.

"Zakkenayo bakayaro! yells Vegita while he does his katas. Filthy mouth for such a young kid.

"Hey now boy, no need to get off on the wrong foot." I retort.

"You will respond to the Prince as PRINCE Vegita, and not BOY! Or else you will suffer for your foolishness!" Nappa practically screams. Damn, isn't he protective?

"I'll call this BOY" I drag out the word, for added insult "whatever I damn well please until he can prove himself worthy. Do you want to try and convince me?" Hey, I'm allowed my fun. Besides, Nappa's an ass from what I gather.

"WHY YOU…" "Enough Nappa!" Snaps Vegita. "Lets see if this fool can prove his worth."

"HA! He doesn't even register on scouters." Radditz scoffs. "Fool." Vegita mutters "Had you not heard of him yet? And his hidden power?" "Come, let's spar then kusotare."

So we did. Seeing that he was unarmed, I discarded my sword blade first into the wall, and about half an inch from Nappa's face. To his credit, he hadn't flinched.

Vegita struck first. He dashed forward and looked as if he was going to try to sock me in the face. Instead, he flipped over me and shot a blast into my back. Hey…

I kick him in the head sending Vegita flying, dash forward, and slam him to the ground before he reaches the wall. I hadn't expected that blast. Vegita recovers quickly with a boot upwards into my lung, which should stun me, but I can't feel pain. I take advantage of Vegita's bad position to sock him in the face, lift him by his hair and slam him into the wall.

But DAMN, he recovers fast. Not as fast as me of course, but still. He shot a blast at me, I dodged to my right, and then Vegita shoots two more blasts, one where I was heading and another shortly after to my left. Nice maneuver, but I just continue right and knock the blast away with a flick of my wrist. I counter with eye beams, which Vegita jumps.

Again, Vegita fires a beam. This time, I drop to the ground, land on my hands, and use my hands and the ground as a springboard to fly at Vegita feet first. I connect. Vegita is now sprawled out on the training floor.

"Very good, though I beat the shit out of you, you're still damn good. I'll call you Vegita, instead of boy. But not prince." I say. "LOOK HERE INSOLENT BOY!" Nappa starts. "Do not," I warn "try to get me to bow to a prince who is not MY prince." And I leave.

"Nice show." #8 comments. Seems she was watching. "Yeah, well, what do you expect from the best?" I say with an insolent grin.

"Whatever. Want to try me then?" #8 responds. "If you want to get beat that bad…" I start. But then a soldier comes up to us.

"#8 and #9?" "Yes?" "Report to Freeza's chambers now."

"Damn, ruined our fun. Lets go #8. I assume it's where we were yesterday." I beckon to #8 while dislodging my sword. And we try to backtrack our way to Freeza. Sure we took a couple wrong turns, but I think we made damn good time for being in a practically new place.

We find his chambers and enter. "So…" Freeza begins "Now you can explain some of your capabilities and also why your power levels are at zero."

"Fair enough." I say. "Fairness…" Freeza warns "has nothing to do with this organization." Ok… "We are both androids. Part organic, part mechanical. Due to the mechanization, we don't show up on scouters." I tell Freeza. "Really… very interesting. Go on."

"We are both skilled fighters, as you saw yesterday. I also am very skilled with technology and can very much use it to my advantage." I state.

"As for me…" #8 starts "I am a skilled fighter like #9 said, but also a strategist."

Then I pick it up again. "For other capabilities. We also have built in scouters, titanium exoskeletons, and are immune to pain. Unfortunately, we require maintenance , but if given the proper tools, I can handle that myself."

"All very interesting." Freeza says "Tell me now, what tools to you need, for maintenance?" And I start to tell Freeza.

Later… "Good. I will give you your first mission and notice of a workspace for your maintenance within a week. Dismissed." We leave. Seems the interview took up the better part of the day.

"That didn't go too bad." I say to #8. "Yeah, until it looked like you were boring the hell out of him with technical details." "Hey, he asked." I retort. "True…" #8 drawls.

"How about we go to the training room?" #8 asks. "Good enough."

When we arrive, we notice Vegita, Radditz, and Nappa. "Damn!" I say "They're still here?" Radditz turns around. "Fighting is what Saiyajins are born for baka." "I'd say." #8 mutters. "So… you aren't interested in anything else, like technology." "We have slaves for that." Radditz retorts. Well, then if I lose my computer terminal for tampering or something anytime in the future, I guess that means I can just take theirs. Doesn't sound like they'd miss it.

"HOW DARE YOU COME BACK AGAIN?" That, was Nappa I guess, damn I'm good. "Here we go again…" Radditz mutters as he shakes his head.

"Hey, #8, why don't you take Nappa? You haven't trained yet today." "Sure. Should be easy though." #8 says with a smirk. "WHY YOU!" "Just shut up and fight" #8 says as she blasts forward.

"So… is it just me, or is this Nappa fella a complete imbecile?" I ask Radditz. I chose him because Vegita is seemingly immersed in the fight and Radditz is the only one who seems half way social. "Yeah, he is, it's not just you." Radditz responds "But there isn't anything we can do about it. He's the Commander of the Saiyajin army." I nearly face vault. "WHA! That moron is in charge of your army!" I stammer in disbelief. "Yeah, unfortunately." "How'd he get that position?" "Power, and blood line." Radditz answers. Damn, that's pretty lame.

While we're talking, #8 is proceeding to dismantle Nappa piece by piece. Nappa is pretty torn up by now, but still refuses to surrender, even though he's barely scratched #8. What a stubborn dumb ass. Unlike me, by the way, #8 didn't bother to disarm and is using her sword to it's full potential. Nappa was also foolish enough to 'order' #8 to go all out.

I look over to Vegita. He seems in perfect health. I didn't hurt him THAT bad this morning, but there should be some bruises or something. "Hey, Radditz, why is Vegita over there unscarred?" I ask. "Prince Vegita? You mean from this morning?" "Yeah." "He used a regeneration tank, don't you know about them?" I must say I don't.

So Radditz tells me about these regeneration tanks, and Nappa still fights. He's got stamina, I'll give him that much. Nappa takes yet another hit in the face with the hilt of her sword, knee to the gut, and slammed into the ceiling. About now, Nappa is literally a bloody mess. Covered with blood head to toe from various cut and stab wounds, one eye swollen shut, has a limp, and seems dizzy. "I WON'T LOSE TO THE LIKES OF YOU!" he screams as he takes a beam in the gut, finally knocking him out.

"I take it he'll need a tank for that, huh?" "Yes." Radditz responds. And a little bit more cheerfully, he says "Which is good, since now I won't have to put up with him for the night." I grin. "So, how long are you three here?" "We're just here for a couple more days. We're ambassadors for the Saiyajins to Freeza over trade agreements and hiring." Radditz replies. "Ah, so you guys are kind of like a subsidiary of the Corps then?" "Yeah."

"That was too easy!" says #8. "Aw, did you break your new toy too soon?" I joke. Vegita seems to be taking this very seriously. "I guess we should go then." I say. "WAIT!" yells Vegita. "You two… are worthy. I want to spar with you each day for the remainder of the time we're here." I grin at this. "Do not think you have the upper hand for long. I WILL get stronger and defeat you!" I shrug and comply. Do all Saiyajins have overblown egos?

We decide to first stop off at the mess hall. Sure, we're androids and shouldn't have to eat much, but we've been in cryogenic suspension for who knows how long and went without any sort of snack yesterday.

I had some alien meat that resembled chicken, tasted like it too. Ever notice everything tastes like chicken? I also had some water for a drink. #8 ate the same thing.

With that done, we went to our room. #8 sharpened her sword while I worked more with this computer terminal. Still getting used to the damn thing. Nothing more than the basic welcome crap so far, no real information. But hey, I'm getting a bit better here.

Chapter 9

I awake, next to #8. Hey, we're in the same room, it had to happen soon. So I get up and dress in my armor, #8 will be up soon and knows where I'll be. Time to greet the day and mock Nappa. What a great way to start the morning, I'd have it no other way.

Sure enough, the three were in the training room. The same one as yesterday. I can tell because there is still the hole in the wall from my sword.

"You guys live in here?" I throw out. "No. We rest." Radditz answers. "Yeah, how much?" "We get a good 4 hours of sleep." … talk about an obsession. I bother to check Vegita's power level again for some reason. It reads 5730. HUH! It was just 5000 the day before! "What's wrong boy?" Nappa sneers. Seems the astonishment shows, I straighten up quickly. "It's just, well, damn amazing. Vegita's power level has jumped 730 more points from yesterday." I manage to say. Nappa grins "All Saiyajins do that. We live for battle. Our losses become our strength." So… what this fool is trying to tell me, is that whenever a Saiyajin gets the shit beat out of him or her, their power level jumps up! I check Nappa's power level. Sure enough, he's at 3550, not as high as a jump, but it's still a jump. "And why hasn't your power level gone up as much Nappa?" I ask. "Because I have reached my 'limit'." Nappa says with a growl. Whatever that is. Radditz helped "A Saiyajin has what we call a limit. Our power grows quickly until a certain age, which is our limit. Then it grows at a much slower pace. Vegita is still very young." Damn, I need to lighten up on Vegita then. No wonder he was so confident that he'd overpower me. Sure, I gain power from fighting, but to gain power from that AND for just getting the shit beaten out of you?

"Let's start." Vegita cuts to the point. "Fine then." I start to put my sword in it's 'place', the wall, but Vegita stops me. "Use the sword." If he insists. I usually won't have a problem, but I can injure him more with the sword, which will make him more powerful. While I'm curious about this whole power level gain thing, I don't want to find out later that his power level has been going up exponentially because I'm going all out on him. Fine, so we start.

Instead of rushing him, I just shoot a beam from my finger to get him moving. He moves all right, and tries to back attack me again. This time, I'm ready. I sense his movement behind me and smack him using the handle of my sword. "That's an old trick now." he grins. He flies behind me yet again, he must be up to something. I barely notice, but he was actually feigning another back attack. In reality, he actually instantaneously reverses direction and attacks me from the side. I jump, but his foot wings my shin. I dive down and slash with my sword, cutting across his chest plate and slamming him into the wall.

In an instant, Vegita is out with a flying kick. I grab his foot and swing him to the ground. Vegita takes some injury, but rolls out of it, towards me, and ki blasts me in the face. It ultimately didn't do much damage, but this kid is practically dancing circles around me. I decide to liven up the pace.

I kick off Vegita to get some distance. I fling two basic beams at him. Vegita flies forward, dodges one beam, and blocking another. But this puts him in perfect position. It worked once, now I'll try it again. I knee Vegita in the gut, stunning him. I lack anything to blind him with this time, since I'm wearing my armor instead of my coat, but some ki blasts do get mighty bright. Soon as Vegita recovers, I shove my hand in his face and release the brightest flash I can manage, temporarily blinding him.

I now slash Vegita several more times, cutting through his armor. With his armor now weakened, I tear it off and do some real damage. Vegita now takes my blows at full force. I sock him in the gut, crack his jawbone with the handle of my sword, and kick him in the chest sending him into the wall and breaking some ribs. I may of over did it, but they do have regeneration tanks.

"YOU WILL PAY!" yells Nappa. "Shut up you fool!" I yell back. "Vegita wanted me to fight, and with my sword as well. I am only doing as he asked. Do you want to fight me, who has just dispatched your prince, even though you are only just over half his power level?" this shuts him up. Radditz, being the smarter one of the two, drags Vegita to the tanks and I follow, sheathing my sword.

"Why are you following?" Radditz asks over his shoulder. "Because I want to see how these regeneration tanks work. And also check his power level afterwards." I respond. We make it to the medical center. Radditz puts Vegita into a tank and I watch the tank do it's magic.

"Exactly how powerful are you anyway?" asks Radditz. "I'm about 11,000 right now." I reply. I can practically hear Nappa running towards us now. "WHAT ARE-" Nappa starts. "I'm just curious about the tank and Vegita's new power level. So shut up." "WHY YOU-" Nappa starts yet again "Stuff it. #9 is stronger than me, and I tore you apart yesterday." #8 says.

"In case you're wondering how I found you, I noticed Radditz and Vegita's ki here, and saw Nappa running down the hall. I just followed." said #8. Good enough. "Mind explaining why Nappa and Vegita are stronger?" So I explain, Nappa bickers, and the tank works on Vegita.

1 hour later. Vegita is almost completely healed. He's also conscious. Which is good, actually, because Nappa seems to only shut up when Vegita orders it. It seems the power level boost for Saiyajins is true. Vegita is now at 6820, since I tore him up more this time he has more of a power level boost.

"This power level boost thing is actually kind of scary." #8 whispers to me. Indeed it is, imagine how powerful the race can get. Especially since fighting is their life.

"Ding!" Huh? Oh, the tank is finished. Vegita comes out. "Let's eat." Vegita says, rather seriously. "What the hell?" I mutter, "Up for a snack then #8?" "Sure." and we headed to the mess hall.

I had no idea it was possible for any species to eat this much. Apparently the Chef did, since he had a very exasperated look on his face the instant Vegita walked in.

"Eat… munch… 'amn it. Get some… munch… muscle 'n yer bon's… munch. Dat's …munch… why you look so… munch… 'crawny." Nappa said waving a bone at us. I don't claim to have great eating habits, but this was almost disgusting. I swear Freeza's gonna run out of food supplies by the end of this day. Especially since Saiyajins eat at LEAST 3 meals like this each day, as the Chef told me.

There weren't many people around us, but it wasn't entirely unpopularity. It's just the food took up that much space, about 5 tables worth.

Also, I met that Kewie guy again. Man, just seeing his sneer was worth watching the Saiyajins eat! Apparently, word got around and Kewie is catching hell. I'm so proud.

#8 wanted to go off and explore more of the area. So she left. Fine by me, just gives me more time to work on that computer.

"Where are you going?" I hear Vegita ask. Does he want to fight me AGAIN? "I'm off to live my life." I half heartily reply. "Did I say we were done sparring?". Oh man. "I'll fight you again later Vegita, I have other things to do. Unlike your race, I do things other than fight or eat." "HMPH!". Least it got him off my back.

On my way back, I see some crowd gathered around a training room. Wondering what was so special, I check it out. There was something very funny, and very important I got from this. What was funny, was that I saw some weird aliens doing crazy assed poses and dancing all over the place. What was important, was that this is what's called the "Ginyu Force". There's Guldo, a short four eyed green guy at 15,000. Jaice who looks like a orange skinned wannabe rock star, at 30,000. Burter, a blue skinned reptile at 30,000 as well. Recoom, a giant orange haired man who even dwarfed Nappa in size at a whopping 75,000. And finally Captain Ginyu, a purple, vein popped, horned monster at 120,000! I watched them do katas for a little while, very impressive.

I finally made it back to the room and the computer. Last night, I was able to finally get the hang of the operating system. Now I'll try to see how the security works around here. But soon as I start it up, some message pops up.

**From: Lord Freeza**

**To: #8 & #9**

**I have the facilities you've requested for your maintenance ready #9. You will find you have more than enough materials for you to work with. Go to section 23, the laboratory area, and check in with the manager at the front desk for you entry card. I hope you will repay me in faithful, long lasting, and hard work #9.**

**-Your Employer, Lord Freeza**

Damn, that sure was fast. I must say, this is definitely more interesting than the computer terminal. I assume we'll get our mission through the computer too. Might as well check out what I've got.

Thankfully, I've found out where the nearest map of this place is during my second trip to the cafeteria. I'll check that out first.

My trip to the map and to section 23 was pretty uneventful. So here I am at the front desk.

"I don't recognize you from around here, who are you?" the manager asks. "I am #9, here for…" "Ah yes, I've been told who you are. Here you go" she hands me an identification card. "It's room F7, go down this hallway, second left, first left, and third right for the F hallway." "Thanks."

Alright, now I'm in front of my facility door. Slide in the card. Open sesame.

DAMN! I've got it all baby! This is more than enough to continue my experiments and upgrades. Computer, tables, cutting tools, various metals, wires, etc.

Well, lets see how this stuff works.

Hours later… "Knock!" Huh? Who's that? Gotta be #8.

I open the door, and it's #8, what a surprise. "Saw the message about the laboratory, so I came here."

"Just figuring out how all this stuff works and trying it out." I say. She smirks. "You know you've been doing that all day?" Damn, lost track of time. "I ran across Vegita by the way, he wanted to fight you again. When I mentioned you've probably been working at a computer or something, he said pretty sarcastically 'Unlike your race, I do things other than eat and fight. HMPH!'" I grin at this.

"So are you staying here all night or what?" Night? Damn, I really did lose track of time! "I'll give this a rest." I reply. I follow #8 to our room and get some sleep.

Chapter 10

Another morning, another spar with Vegita, another round of bickering with Nappa. This time #8 is up before me and gone. Fine. So I dress in my armor and go to the training room, where Vegita, Radditz, and Nappa will most likely be.

Well, instead of seeing Vegita waiting impatiently or doing katas while Radditz and Nappa train, I instead see Nappa and #8 fighting again. Of course, Nappa is losing.

Vegita's power level has risen to 7000 even. Nappa is at 3570, and Radditz is at 1600. While #8 is beautifully tearing Nappa a new asshole at 10,750. Nappa, while losing yet again, is still as determined as ever. But seriously, Nappa needs some finesse. He's using nothing but brute strength! By now, Nappa has no armor.

Nappa leaps forward and swings at #8, missing and putting a hole in the ground. #8 slashes Nappa across his right rib and kicks him in the gut, making Nappa keel over. Nappa was about to try and hit #8 with an uppercut when Vegita interjected "ENOUGH NAPPA!" "Huh?" "You heard me! You have already made a complete fool of yourself, no need to embarrass us any more!" Very true. Nappa is a disgrace to any race.

"So… when are you leaving?" I ask Radditz. "In about an hour." Damn, what a shame. I sort of like these guys, well, except their eating habits. "Achieve anything?" "Not anything different than earlier visits, just keeping good relation with Freeza." Radditz replies.

"Oh, something you may want to know #9." starts #8. "Unless you enjoy wailing that can make you go deaf, don't touch their tails." Oh? "And why is that?" I inquire. "Well, I had Nappa down, and decided to use his tail as something to fling him by, it apparently hurt him like hell." The three Saiyajins visibly flinch and hold their tails closer to their waists.

"Come Nappa, Radditz, we must prepare to leave." Vegita said briskly. And they left.

"Well, might as well see if we got our assignment on our computer then?" #8 suggests. "Might as well."

Nope, no assignment yet. "How about we spar?" #8 asks. "Nah. I want to try some things out in that laboratory first." "Hmph! You like that more than me?" #8 says, teasingly. I grin. "Of course, it doesn't whine about privacy, doesn't complain about me, and basically shuts the hell up!" I say with a fat smile. #8 whacks me upside the head. "Baka."

I go to the laboratory, and #8 follows me since she has little else to do.

I decide to test out my knowledge of the machinery here by seeing if I can use these new metals to improve our swords.

A few hours later. "Damn I'm good!" I gloat. I just finished the swords, and they're both sharper and stronger than before. Plus, due to some special properties of the metal, it's easier to focus our ki through them, since the metal amplifies the power of our ki when channeled through one of the swords, we don't have to use as much ki for our beams. "Hey, #8, I'll take you up on that spar. Plus it'd be a good trial for these swords." I offer. "Deal."

On the way to the training area, I look out the window just in time to see three capsules fly outwards from the space station.

When we arrived, we just cut to the fight right away. I first dashed forward and feigned a slash at her chest, which she blocked, but took a fist in the face for her efforts. Jumping back immediately, I watched her own blade swing outwards and it nicked my left cheek.

She then flung a beam at me, which I dodged, but then got cut across my right rib. Apparently, she was using the beam as a distraction so she can fling her sword at me. Well, you can do that if you REALLY want to test out that new metal…

As a side note, a crowd started gathering where #8 and I were fighting. I hope that sword didn't decapitate anyone, but they shouldn't of been in it's way in the first place. No screams, good. Apparently, everyone is as curious about us as Freeza was. So naturally, they want to see us in action. But it took them this long to find out where we train?

#8's sword handle brought me back to the fight. She apparently retrieved her sword while I was thinking of the stupid crowd. I kicked her in the face and tried smacking her in the face with my sword handle, but it was blocked. She then lost her balance as I swept out a leg from under her, she was able to keep afloat of course, but it got her off balance for plenty enough time for me to grab her arm and fling her into the wall.

She flipped around, landed feet first on the wall, and kicked off towards me. Little did she know that I'd been following her and the instant she kicked off I hit her in the gut with an uppercut. That didn't keep her from stabbing my left shoulder though. Luckily I'm right handed.

Jumping back from each other, we stared, completely immersed in our battle. Screw the crowds. Even though my shoulder was injured, that didn't stop me. We ran forward at the same time and our blades met. Now this is a battle!

She brought back her blade and swung forward, I parried and brought up my blade, meeting her chest. Nothing fatal though, just a large cut through her armor and piercing her skin. I drove forward and released a relentless assault of sword slashes and stabs, forcing #8 onto the defensive. A few got through marking her on her limbs, but most were blocked. I took a few cuts myself from her counters.

I kicked her in the head with my left leg, and then channeled my ki into my sword, lifted it, and brought it down across her chest, making another large cut, seriously damaging her armor, and flinging her far away from me. Using this to my advantage, I proceeded to shoot several beams from my already charged sword.

She countered with a ki shield, blocking all the beams. Unfortunately, her latest cut and the ki shield had left her temporarily fatigued and she couldn't dodge my latest beam. We'd torn each other up pretty badly, but she'd taken more damage.

I leaped forward, and rested my sword blade on her throat. "You lost." I say. "Damnit." Seeing as that there was a large crowd around us, no one was going to challenge us for a LONG while yet.

Chapter 11

Doesn't matter that we can't feel pain, those injuries can still be dangerous. Through the stab in my shoulder I found myself in a tank, as well as #8. Very curious machines, these regeneration tanks are. I can almost feel my wound closing itself. While not as efficient as what happens to Saiyajins, we still went at that battle pretty hard, and got a damn nice power boost. Not from injury though, but from physical strain of battle. I now rank at 12,250, while #8 is 11,500.

While interesting, being in this tank doesn't leave me with much to do. And it's gonna be longer than an hour, as it was with Vegita, since our injuries were more severe. Might as well sleep and contemplate new enhancements.

Two and a half hours later. Yes… that would be very interesting to see. If the metal of these swords can channel ki this efficiently, imagine what we could do if I replaced our endoskeletons with this metal! And this recent battle has proven that this metal will hold, since even through all that, our swords barely got scratched. "Ding!" 'bout time.

The technician lets us out. We dress. "So… now what? Another round?" #8 asks. "Later, I've got a really neat idea for an upgrade." I reply. "Really? What is it?" "I'll explain on the way."

It was truly satisfying to see the stares of some of the people who watched our fight on the way to the laboratory. Some were awe, but most were 'How the fuck can someone with a power level of zero do that shit!' stares. It looked like they wanted to dissect us.

7 hours later. It works! Damn I love this laboratory! No worries about how I might upgrade my OWN endoskeleton, there were robotic arms and stuff to do that for me.

A VERY nice improvement. Our power level jumped by 1.5 times. So I'm at 18,375 and #8 is at 17,250. #8 wants to blow some shit up, understandable, but we're in a space station and can't quite do that.

Now that it's getting late, we head back to our room. #8 is so thrilled over the new upgrade, she decides to 'reward' me. Hey, she needs to use that newfound power somewhere, right?

Chapter 12

Another morning. #8 is up and dressing in her armor, we have multiple sets, when I awaken. Hmm… my daily routine is screwed up now, no Vegita to bust up.

We decide just to hang out in our room for a while. Especially after we noticed our new message on the computer. We got our mission.

**From: Lord Freeza**

**To: #8 and #9**

**This first mission will be a perfect test of your abilities. The planet Esthar 4 has been giving us… problems. They have several 'grunts' ranging in power level from about 3000-4000. But the real problem is the higher up fighters, ranging about 15,000 max. I would have sent my stronger fighters and went with a brute force attack, but they are tied up elsewhere. I do not know the extent of your power, but you should be able to take them. If they are stronger, then treat this as a mission of stealth, using your ability of masking your ki. You will depart at 15:00 from section 14, capsules #137 and #208. This is also a planet rich in resources, try your best not to damage it too much. Also included with this message are maps and information on this planet you can use. Good luck.**

**-Your Employer, Lord Freeza**

Doesn't seem very bad at all. It's currently 13:15. Not to be confused with noon, that'd be 15:00. Still having some problems with these 30 hour days, we seem to be waking up at different hours each day. I start to exercise some, to stretch myself out.

"So… this is our mission then?" #8 says. "Yep. Not too bad if you ask me." I do some push-ups. "Yeah, except one detail…" #8 trails off. "And what would that be?" "Well," she begins "3000-4000 doesn't seem bad at all, and we can handle 15,000, but we don't know exactly how many of these guys there are. If there are ten guys at 4000 each jumping us, we'd have a problem. The same with more than a few guys at 15,000." I stop in the middle of a push up.

"Shit… that's right." I mutter. "When was that message sent?" I ask. "About 20 minutes ago." DAMNIT! Freeza knows that we wouldn't be able to get an audience with him (I think Freeza's a he… good enough) about this mission within two hours, this is a big organization. And we won't get a reply from Freeza before 15:00 if we send him a message, he can just put it off saying he was busy with other affairs. And Freeza knows this. It's our first mission, he's decided to make this quite simple for himself, send us on a now seeming rather challenging mission to prove our worth. And if we die, he can just send in stronger warriors to clean up the mess, and salvage us for whatever capabilities he can pry from our mechanized bodies.

"Freeza doesn't leave us with much choice." #8 says, rather seriously. No shit. Nothing else to do but get ready…

A hour and a half later… We're walking down hallways, going towards section 14. Didn't even have time for a good spar. We had to spend some time getting used to the scouters, while we don't need them to read power levels, we do need them for their radios. Didn't need to go over mission objectives much though, just one, clear the planet. As for food, when we actually do eat, we decided to just go with whatever the planet has to offer. Freeza said it was full of resources.

We find our capsules with little trouble. So little else to do but enter and take off…

Chapter 13

Nothing to comment on during the trip, especially since we were put in stasis so the trip would seem shorter. It lasted 2 days.

I'm the first to come out. I stretch a little, it's not like stasis makes you limber. #8 comes out shortly after and starts stretching as well.

"So… this is Esthar 4? Damned nice if you ask me." remarks #8. Indeed it is. We're currently on a grassy plain, with what seems to be a forest and some mountains further up. Atmosphere is strange though, sky has a greenish tint. Overall it's still a nice looking planet.

"I suggest we get moving." I say "They may not be able to read our power level, but they can probably notice two capsules streaking through their atmosphere." "The forest up ahead looks good." #8 throws out. We go to the forest.

I check the electronic map I downloaded into my mind. "This should be the Xarnian Forest. Weird ass name, but it's only 200 miles from the capital." I tell #8. "How about we stay in this forest awhile to catch some rest, and travel to the capital later?" #8 offers. "Sounds good." and we sleep in our armor.

Later… We awaken after about 5 hours. "YAAAWWWNNN!" That was me. "So… how about a light meal and we get going?" I ask. "Sure." #8 says. I stretch and search for some food. An animal I spy, looks tasty, so this animal we eat.

Who needs a fire? Especially when you can use your ki to flash fry the meat. We dragged the animal, which resembled some sort of deer but a little smaller, to the nearest lake. We have some water with our 'deer' meat. After stretching a little, we get ready to leave.

"According to the map" says #8, we have the same map "Esthar capital should be about 215 miles North-West from our position." "Let's go then." I respond. You just have to love flying some times, makes travel a lot easier. We land on the outskirts of the main capital. We find a couple guards with a power level of 3450 guarding the entrance, who both have scouters, meaning constant communication. They look pretty humanoid… well, except for the claws protruding from their wrists and heels, they look like mutants. The guards also both look sort of stringy, and have gold hair. We decide to have a look around before confronting the guards. We take a peek over the wall, no one sees us.

They ALL, are stringy, have claws, and gold hair. Instead of confronting the guards and alerting all military personnel, we decide to jump the wall and infiltrate the capital. I love dark alleyways, can't be seen.

We run through these alleyways until we reach the main capital building, containing the leader according to my information. There's no way to avoid the guards now, each ranking 5000, but if there were some way to kill them without notice…

"Follow me." #8 whispers. I follow. We end up pretty damn close to the entrance, but there are some guards still in the way who haven't noticed us yet. Time to start the havoc.

#8 shoots a carefully aimed finger beam over the heads of the guards, distracting them. We run towards the entrance. Some guards take notice. Of course, since they were so curious about the finger beam, they're all now conveniently clumped together in one group. I fling a beam at them, which they can't avoid and are all wasted.

We bust in the door and waste all guards inside. No need to bother with the others, the alarms are already blaring.

The main room with the leader of Esthar is pretty damn easy to find. Even easier with our maps. #8 blows the door off of it's hinges. "What is this!" the leader yells. "Oh, just the usual kill leader, cause chaos, destroy inhabitants of planet, sell planet routine." I say in a very mocking manner. "Goodbye." and I blast his fool head off. And then some force twists my head to the side.

Turns out, that force was the fist of a bodyguard with the power level of 16,750. Not as high as my 18,375, but still going to take a bit of time. He seems to have some sort of armor, made of a shiny metal, but I should be able to get through it. "#8, guard the entrance, I'll pound this guy." #8 rolls her eyes "Yeah, take all the fun for yourself." "Heh." I whip out my sword and fling a crescent shaped beam at him using my blade. As soon as the blast hits his armor, it rebounds and flies at me!

"DROP DAMNIT!" I yell at #8 as I kiss the dirt. #8 ducks just in time for my beam to miss cutting her in half. "NANI KUSO!" "Don't use beams on armor like this, it reflects them!" the guard charges me. His (her?) armor may reflect my beams, but that says nothing for my fists and blade. I duck his charge and uppercut him right in the jaw, severely denting the armor. Then I continue with a downward slash of my blade, cutting through the armor like tin foil. It apparently can take care of beams, but doesn't take well to physical attacks.

I think I can relate this battle to opening a can of sardines that fights back. This guard puts those claws to good use. I have some cuts across my chest, but nothing to fret over. By now, I've dented a good deal of the armor, and torn off the helmet, revealing this guard to be male. While I'm dancing with this guy, #8 is holding off all the lesser guards, using the hallway as a choke point.

My blade flies upwards, slashing through the armor and tearing off the shoulder guard. Damn, this is taking too long. I dodge to the side avoiding a clawed arm. To hell with this shit.

I leap forward full force, and right into the arms of the guard. Of course, I was planning that, full force means that I also knock his ass to the ground. He tries to pry me off, but I just shove my blade down his throat, finishing this fight.

All in all, not bad, though I have some cuts, none serious except for one across my chest, but I'll deal with that later. "Time to blow this pit!" I yell to #8. "'bout damn time! I sense some higher level guards flying this way! Ranging around 14,000! ETA about 5 minutes!" SHIT!

I blow a hole through the ceiling, making a quick escape. #8 follows after me. "Ready?" "Always!" We both charge up our beams at the same time and let 'em loose on the building, tearing it up, but it's still intact. A messy job, I know, but we can finish it later. "Time to bolt." #8 tells me. I'd say, I can see more guys with that armor in the distance.

We run into a nearby alleyway. Finally, we spot a good hiding spot, with a perfect view of the surrounding area. "Whew, made it." I mutter. "We're going to have to pick these guards off one by one." #8 whispers. Our senses count seven of these guards, which is good, because there are only seven of them in this area. I'm damn glad we took a look around the area first.

"They were around here…" I hear a guard say to another guard from outside. #8 and I nod, we step out. The poor bastards hadn't seen it coming. They're searching for us, and next they know they have swords protruding from their guts. Five more to go.

We stalk the alleys until we find another pairing of two. This time, they spotted us. "We've found the assassins! Wha? Their power level reads zero! Preparing to engage!" I rush forward and slam my shoulder into the helmet of the nearest guard, knocking his ass down and removing his helmet. A beam through the skull finishes him off.

"One guard down! Requesting- OOF!" #8 punches into his armor, denting it badly and hitting the guy in the stomach. He keels over. #8 finishes it by slicing his neck. I grab one of their scouters and we run again.

"Back up denied. Hello? Respond! DAMNIT!" I hear a guard on the other line. "Ok, us three will hold our positions for now, they should be around here, we'll see them from our position." Hmm… the only position like that would have to be the remains of the capital building.

I crush the scouter. "Let's go." I mutter. We dash full speed to the remains of the building. The guards spot us instantly. "FIRE!" the guards shoot beams at us, easily dodged at this range. I fling another of those crescent shaped beams, but not at a guard. At the ground below a guard. The explosion flings the guard off his feet, I use this to my advantage and stab him through the chest three times before he hits the ground. Without losing a beat, I continue on to the next guard and swing my blade without remorse, taking his arm. "AARRGGH!" I finish the job by decapitating him. #8 has already killed the remaining guard.

"The hard part should be over now." #8 says. "Let's finish it." I say. We fly well above the capital, and power up our beams to full strength. I fire my beam first, taking the rest of the main capital, then #8 fires wasting the residential areas. Everyone in the area is dead.

I drop to the ruins of the capital building, which we hadn't hit with our last volley of beams. It still stands. "Why are you going in there?" #8 asks. "To see if I can find anything of use." I find that the room of the leader was remarkably still intact. And it still had power. We did a REALLY messy job on this building. The computer is already running, so I check it out.

I shift through the various texts, economics, elections, public services… Here we go! Military.

There is an army of about 24,000 soldiers. The army is so small due to high power levels of at least an average of 4,000 each soldier, we win with quality, not quantity. In the capital, there are 7 prototype suits, which can deflect any ki attacks. We hope we can apply this to our entire military soon…

That's all I need. "Good news #8, we don't have to deal with any more of those damn suits." #8 grins "Perfect. So then we just level the rest of the cities?" "Yeah, pretty much." I finish. Was fun while it lasted though, I can already feel the increase in power. I now am at 19,750, and #8 is 18,500.

"WHAT THE HELL!" I yell. I just noticed a very high power level. "What are you yelling about?" #8 says, rather irritated. "Look east damnit!" Unless I'm seeing things, I just read 29,000 on someone far off. I thought Freeza said 15,000 max! Judging by the look on #8's face, I'm not seeing things. "Ok…" #8 starts "This is a problem. We still have some advantages over whoever this guy is still. First off, he can't sense where we are by power level. Second, we don't fatigue or feel pain, these guys do. Finally, there are two of us, and just one of him." All true. "Alright…" I mutter "this guy is heading right here, the capital building. Instead of just jumping this guy together, I'll hold him off a bit, and then you can jump in for a quick kill when you see the opportunity. Like you said, we have stealth on our side." "Damnit, what about you? You could get killed." #8 protests. "Well then… just be sure to get in that fatal blow before he wastes me…". "He's here. Hide near the entrance #8, I'll go face him." I order #8.

"So, you're the assassin." the man says. He's not decked in any of that armor, thankfully, then again, does he need it? "No power level? I'd say you're a waste of time, but you've already proven that wrong. Are you from Freeza?" The man asks. "Why should I tell you?" I retort. "No matter, you will be dead soon enough. Reports say there are two, where's the other?" "There is no other. Maybe all your guards are delirious, explains why I had little problem wasting this place." I say, if he doesn't expect two, this will be much easier.

"Fine then. Now… you die." and he charges me faster than I can respond to. He socks me in the face, sending me flying into the steps of the building. Before I'm up, he's upon me again and flings me into the air. As I go upwards, I unsheathe my sword and prepare.

I hear the man before the blow. I barely dodge a hit to my back, which would have sent my plummeting to the ground. I swing but only nick his shoulder as he dodges. "Not bad…" he says. I use this opportunity to start focusing my ki. "But not good enough!" and he charges me yet again. But I'm prepared this time. Using the ki I've been charging, I move almost instantaneously behind him and swing my blade downwards. And he catches it! I'm in deep shit…

Chapter 14

He caught my fucking blade! Shit, I should've gone with #8's plan just to jump him. I get punched in the gut. Oh man, thank you. Since a punch to the gut can't stun me, this move has left my assailant in a VERY bad position.

I wretch my blade away from him, which I can only do since he's just completely surprised. Then I slash at him, cutting him several times, including one deep gash in his right arm.

Unfortunately, the man regains his senses and socks me in the face, grabs my arm, and flings me down towards the ground. I slam into the pavement, and I jump out as quickly as I hit and kick my opponent in the face. Apparently, I didn't hurt him enough, since he just grabbed my leg and flung me into the building, making a wall collapse on top of me.

My armor is now cracked in several places, and my shoulder guards are torn off. He closes in on me. I see a shadow moving behind him, and I grin. Of course, I just confused the man shitless, and he just stood there while #8 sneaked behind him.

I see the blade stab right through the mans chest! Victory! Or… not quite. I watch, very surprised by the way, as he grabs the blade, and YANKS IT OUT OF HIS CHEST! He turns his now bloody form to #8, who is just as surprised as me. "There is an 'other'." He says, and he then grabs #8 by the throat and flings her through a pillar.

NO! Damnit, I have to help! Stupid concrete, GET THE FUCK OFF OF ME! I scream mentally as I struggle to get out from under the collapsed wall. I watch as the man gabs #8's sword, and flings it right into her right rib, pinning her to a wall. He then backhands #8 across the face hard as he can, and she goes limp… bastard… bastard… die…

I fling the last concrete block off of me, grab my sword, and dash right at him swinging relentlessly. Driven like a man possessed, I assault him continuously. Some hits actually get through, he's was caught that off guard. I'm too damn pissed to notice that my power level had temporarily jumped to 23,750.

Hell reigns upon the land as I shoot beams by the dozen, my blade breathes fire, and one time I almost quite literally shove my boot up his ass! I drive my blade into his chest, giving him a second stab wound there, which flings him into the building, and I follow.

I pound him some more, and fling him back out the building, and watch him flop on the ground. The fire in me winds down, and my power level levels out at 21,000. My opponent, due to all of the wounds he just took, has been weakened to just 20,000. "H-HOW?" he stammers as I walk to him. "Die." I say simply as I decapitate the bastard.

With that over with, I run over to check on #8. She's conscious from passing out earlier. "He's… dead?" she asks. "Damn straight he is." I reply as I yank out the sword, and catch #8. I remember we had some medical equipment in the capsules. "Let's go back to the capsules, we can recover there." I tell her. "Fine…" #8 staggers a bit, probably from blood loss. "Need help?" "I'm fine on my own." And we leave.

Chapter 15

I call them 'half tanks'. Basically, they're just big bandages with the rejuvenating liquid from the tanks applied to them. I needed a few myself. Luckily, blood loss wasn't much of a problem, her internal systems corrected that soon as she patched up her wound.

She was also curious about how I won and my power increase. I just said I got lucky and my power increase is from being able to beat that guy.

"Since you got to have all the fun, I call dibs on wasting the rest of this planet. There isn't any more real opposition left." She calls fighting that last guy FUN? "Go right ahead." I reply, I don't really care right now, I think I'm at the closest an android can possibly get to just dead tired. Mentally, that is, I feel fine physically.

We're by our capsules, in the middle of the plains again. Sure enough, there were some guys checking out our stuff. We wasted them immediately.

"So when do we finish our job?" asked #8. She's just eager to waste something. "When we heal and I get some rest." "HMPH! Figures you'd be tired. Going off with that macho male attitude!" I laugh. "I just went 'cause I had more power. Next time we find someone that strong, I'll let YOU fight!" I say with a grin.

"I could've beat him." "Yeah, that's why you were pinned to the wall." I retort. "It's not like you were doing much better! All busted up under a pile of concrete!" she's not going to let this one die. Well then, neither will I. "Least I was able to pull myself out, I didn't see you getting down from the wall." "HA! Yeah, listen to the guy with the 'master plan' here. Oh, I'll just fight him on my own a while you sneak up behind him. No big deal! My plan would've worked better." Yeah, right. "Nah, you'd have just been pinned to the wall sooner." "But we would've done some damage quicker, instead of you being his freaking punching bag!" Shit, will she give up already? Not much I can say to that last one though. "Hey, it worked, didn't it?" "Yeah, barely." Least she stopped arguing.

After resting a while… #8 looks edgy. Fine damnit, let's go then. "Let's go." I say. "Took you long enough. Would be almost done by now if…" "Are we getting into that again?" "Only if you keep it going." sometimes she's just impossible.

"Alright, let's just finish this mission." I start "I know you want to have the rest of the planet to yourself, but that will take a long time, even if it is a relatively small planet. We'll split it up half and half…" "Hey…" #8 protests. "Let me finish. I had my 'fun', you get first choice on what we waste, and I'm stuck with the rest." #8 grinned at this.

Several hours later… I should have known that she'd treat all towns as equals, meaning she got capitals and I had tiny backwater villages. But I said she had first pick, me and my big mouth. Ah well, who am I to complain? Earlier I just wanted to let #8 handle it all.

All in all, it's going pretty well. The left over warriors are no match for me. I've almost finished my quota, 65 areas out of 73. From what #8's told me over the radio, she's wasted 53 out of 74 areas. I expect that #8 will get a large power level increase from this, she is fighting much stronger warriors than the pathetic bunch I fight now. Of course, there are no more 29,000 monsters.

The next village is only a short distance away. A few moments later, I loom over this small town like the 'Reaper. Instead of taking my time on this, I just waste it in a few blasts, it's that small. For all of their technology, they don't have many villages. I guess they have a pretty low population.

One hour later… I've finished off my share, and now I'm waiting by the capsules for #8 to finish her part. "Almost done…" I hear #8 over the radio. "There! I've finished my last city. I'm coming back to your position." About time, she just had to have her 'fun'.

As #8 approaches, I see her new power level. 20,050… not bad at all. Must have been more of those guys at 15,000 than I thought. "Ready to go?" #8 asks as she lands a few feet in front of me. "Take care not to waste the country side much?" "Yep. More pay that way." I grin. "Anything worth salvaging?" "Nope." "Damn." It's times like these I wish I wasn't so thorough in some of my work. That reflecting armor is torn up beyond repair. Thing is, they should have reflected the beams from #8 and I when we finished off the capital, but apparently they can only reflect so much power. Ah well…

"Then let's report to Freeza and get the fuck out." I say, dialing in the frequency for reporting successful missions. "#9 and #8 reporting in from Esthar 4." "Mission accomplished?" the radioman asks. "Affirmative. All inhabitants killed, all major offensive industries have been demolished, and the surrounding country sides of all cities have remained intact. Requesting permission to return to the space station." "Good. Permission granted. We will send soldiers over there immediately. You can leave anytime you wish." "Thank you. Good bye." Good, I shut off the radio.

"Well?" #8 asks. "They're sending over soldiers and we can leave whenever. Let's get going." "Alright." We board our capsules and take off.

Chapter 16

As before, the trip was uneventful since we were out of it. We step out and stretch a bit. "Well, good to be back." I mutter. "Why, do you like this place that much?" #8 asks. "Yes, two reasons. Opportunities for new missions, and my laboratory. Not neccesarially in that order." "HMPH!"

We decide to stop off at the cafeteria for a snack. Seeing as that there isn't as much food occupying the table this time, people have room to sit. So someone decides to socialize with us.

"Aren't you the soldiers without power levels?" A man asks me. Correction, a Saiyajin asks me. I thought Vegita, Nappa, and Radditz were the only ones on this station. This man is wearing an outdated black colored version of our armor, is well built, and has hair that spikes out like an explosion.. "Yes." "Why is that?" I tell him of us being androids. No harm in that.

Later… "Interesting…" the Saiyajin says. Weird, a Saiyajin interested in technology, and doesn't get bored to death with 'tech talk'. That's unheard of from what I heard from Vegeta and Co. "I thought Saiyajins were uninterested in working with technology themselves." I state to this man. "I'm somewhat of an oddity. Most of us off-world troops are." Fair enough. I suppose they're more social too. "What's your name?" I ask "Bardock." good, I'll want to be able to meet with him later. I've taken a liking to this guy. Of course, #8 doesn't seem to have the same opinion. She left LONG ago, like five minutes after I started explaining androids to Bardock. "I have to go now. I'm not here for recreation." Bardock says rather plainly. "Understandable." I reply. Then I leave in search of #8.

I find her sleeping in our room. Well, we did go with little sleep throughout that mission, and we need some sleep, android or not. I haven't touched that computer in a while. Lemme see where I can get on it. I connect to the main database through my terminal.

Hmm… free access to mission records to all soldiers. Well, only what they want you to see of course. #8 and mine has been updated. Not like the record's huge right now…

**Name: #9**

**Power Level: Unknown**

**Rank: Mercenary**

**Missions Attempted: 1**

**Missions Completed: 1**

**Missions Failed: 0**

**Success Rate: 100**

Says pretty much the same thing for #8. Not very detailed, which is why it's public. Still very important info, lets me know where I rank among the rest. Well, looks like this is what our life will be like. Sounds like fun!


	3. Chapter 3

PART III: VEGITASEI, HERE THEN GONE

Important Info

One year after Esthar 4…

**Name: #9**

**Power Level: 24,000**

**Rank: Mercenary, Assassin, Hacker**

**Missions Attempted: 23**

**Missions Completed: 23**

**Missions Failed: 0**

**Success Rate: 100**

**New Physical Characteristics: Seems to have aged very slightly.**

**Grew out hair and has a ponytail. (A la Mirai Trunks)**

**Name: #8**

**Power Level: 23,050**

**Rank: Mercenary, Assassin, Strategist**

**Missions Attempted: 23**

**Missions Completed: 23**

**Missions Failed: 0**

**Success Rate: 100**

**New Physical Characteristics: Seems to have aged very slightly.**

**Cut hair short.**

**Name: Dodoria**

**Power Level: 20,000**

**Rank: Mercenary, Freeza's Bodyguard**

**Missions Attempted: Confidential**

**Missions Completed: Confidential**

**Missions Failed: Confidential**

**Success Rate: Confidential**

**New Physical Characteristics: None.**

**Name: Zarbon**

**Power Level: 20,000 (30,000 hidden)**

**Rank: Mercenary, Freeza's Bodyguard**

**Missions Attempted: Confidential**

**Missions Completed: Confidential**

**Missions Failed: Confidential**

**Success Rate: Confidential**

**New Physical Characteristics: None.**

**Name: Freeza**

**Power Level: 150,000 (Over 700,000 hidden)**

**Rank: Leader of Freeza Mercenary Corps**

**Missions Attempted: Confidential**

**Missions Completed: Confidential**

**Missions Failed: Confidential**

**Success Rate: Confidential**

**New Physical Characteristics: None.**

**Name: Kewie**

**Power Level: 10,000**

**Rank: Mercenary**

**Missions Attempted: 67**

**Missions Completed: 59**

**Missions Failed: 8**

**Success Rate: 88.1**

**New Physical Characteristics: None.**

**Name: Vegita**

**Power Level: 11,000**

**Rank: Saiyajin Mercenary, Prince of Vegitasei, Elite Class Soldier**

**Missions Attempted: Confidential**

**Missions Completed: Confidential**

**Missions Failed: Confidential**

**Success Rate: Confidential**

**New Physical Characteristics: Looks a year older.**

**Name: Nappa**

**Power Level: 7,000**

**Rank: Saiyajin Mercenary, Commander of Vegitasei's Army,**

**Elite Class Soldier**

**Missions Attempted: Confidential**

**Missions Completed: Confidential**

**Missions Failed: Confidential**

**Success Rate: Confidential**

**New Physical Characteristics: None.**

**Name: Radditz**

**Power Level: 2,000**

**Rank: Saiyajin Mercenary, 2'nd Class Soldier**

**Missions Attempted: Confidential (Due to almost constant**

**association with Vegita)**

**Missions Completed: Confidential**

**Missions Failed: Confidential**

**Success Rate: Confidential**

**New Physical Characteristics: Looks a year older, taller.**

**Name: Bardock**

**Power Level: 5,000**

**Rank: Saiyajin Mercenary, Part-time Technician, 1'st Class**

**Soldier**

**Missions Attempted: 93**

**Missions Completed: 91**

**Missions Failed: 2**

**Success Rate: 97.8**

**New Physical Characteristics: Two perpendicular scars on his left**

**cheek.**

Chapter 17

"WHOOSH!" Damn, that was too close! #8's sword missed me barely by a half inch. We're training again, nothing better to do. I swing my blade and shoot out a blade beam (like he shot at Esthar 4). It misses, thankfully, they have some ki absorbers in here, or that would've done some damage.

I've already lost use of my left arm, but #8 has a nasty limp from a leg wound I dealt her. #8 blasts forward and slashes me across my chest, and it slams me into the wall. She powers up and dashes towards me again, but I move out of the way and hit her in the back of the head with the hilt of my sword, which slightly disoriented her. I then punch her in the stomach several times, and kick her in the head.

As #8 fell, I saw her grin. HUH? Too late, I see the ball of ki in her hand. The beam flies forward and hits me point blank, knocking me out.

I wake up in a regeneration tank. Well, might as well contemplate whatever, just to kill time…

I haven't been doing many inventions, there hasn't been much to upgrade lately. I'll find something though. In the mean time, I've been trying to find all the information I can through my computer terminal. Not really much of interest, surprisingly.

Well, except for that one tidbit of info I found on Freeza's thoughts of the Saiyajin. I couldn't really uncover much, all I was able to extract was that there was something about the Saiyajin that's upsetting Freeza. I wonder why? They're the perfect warriors, well, almost. One thing for sure, they can clear planets by the dozens! Especially with their transformation. Wouldn't of even known they could transform if I hadn't gotten curious as to why Bardock was working on a ball of light.

Nothing to really complain about though. Freeza's been really pleased with our work. Not to mention #8 and I have been getting fat paychecks for our work.

Still haven't seen Vegita, Nappa, or Radditz for a while. I miss my spars with Vegita and my chats with Radditz. Of course, I don't give a shit about Nappa. Well, except that the battles between Nappa and #8 are highly amusing. I have seen Kewie several times though, is it just me, or does he seem more pissed each time I see him? Must be because of that one night he got drunk and tried to fight me in front of a large crowd of soldiers. It was pretty funny the rest of the soldiers and I thought, but Kewie apparently didn't see the humor in it. On another note, I've sparred with Dodoria a couple times, he's not so pissed over the fact I've beaten him than over the fact I constantly call him Fatty. Well, in front of everyone but Freeza, but Freeza probably knows anyway. I love mocking Dodoria in front of everyone. I remember one night at the bar, when I was really making fun of Dodoria. I came up with this weight loss program…

"My program is called 'Stop Eating you Fat Bastard!'. The way it works, is that you stop eating you fat bastard! Now, you may be asking me, 'How can I tell if I'm a fat bastard?'. Well, here are some clues. Number one, if you have problems squeezing into the space between the table and chair at restaurants. Number two, if you have to move your chin out of the way to get at that lobster. Number three, if you haven't been able to see your own genitalia for the past five years due to excess blubber. Now, if you're a fat bastard, you can send me 50 international credits for my tape. It's not an audio tape, it's not a video tape, know what kind of tape it is? It's duct tape! Take it and tape it right around your mouth and STOP EATING YOU FAT BASTARD!" While saying this, I was practically pointing at Dodoria the entire time. He was so pissed he was going to try and tear my head off right then and there if some high level guards weren't restraining him. As for everyone else, they were laughing their asses off at Dodoria. I don't think he's ever forgiven me for that. Damn, that was golden.

"DING!" Time to get out, huh? I step out and proceed to dry myself. #8 and I then leave to our room. On the way, I pass Dodoria and Zarbon. "Hey Fatty, use that duct tape yet?" I ask. Dodoria grumbles something about my ponytail and my ass while Zarbon has a mile wide grin on his face. Zarbon was there to hear my weight loss program too, he was one of the people restraining Dodoria later on.

"Are you ever going to leave Dodoria alone?" #8 asks. "Soon as he trys my weight loss program, and it succeeds." I respond. "Sigh… you're cruel, you know that?" "And enjoying every second." I say with a smile.

We make it to our room. First thing I do is check the computer. Well I'll be damned! I wasn't expecting this for our next mission.

**From: Lord Freeza**

**To: #8 and #9**

**Your next mission is less destructive, and more diplomatic. Right now, my relations with the Saiyajin are… shaky. I want you two to go down as my ambassadors to strengthen our alliance with them tomorrow. I chose you two, because from what I know, you two socialized with Prince Vegita and his guards for a short while when he was last here. I want at least another decade of loyal service from them, and keep the 50 profit share with them. On anything else, use your best judgement. Take capsules #52 and #53, you won't be put into stasis since will be in orbit around Vegitasei within a day. Good luck.**

**-Your Employer, Lord Freeza**

"Well…" #8 comments over my shoulder "looks like I get to pay Nappa a visit." She has a wide, cruel grin on her face. In a mocking tone, I tell her "Are you going to ever leave Nappa alone?" I get hit upside the head for my efforts. "Man, we don't even need capsules if we're going to be that close to Vegitasei." I mutter. "Do YOU want to go flying down there in less than freezing temperatures?" #8 replies. She has me there.

"Getting late, let's catch some sleep #8." "Fine." By the way, I've finally adjusted to 30 hour days.

Chapter 18

We wake up and prepare for our mission, dressing in our usual armor and downloading necessary information. Shortly afterwards we went to our capsules. We'd been bored recently, aside from spars, so we were glad for the mission. I bet Dodoria is more than glad I got a mission. Don't worry Fatty, I'll come back with a vengeance! Heh, heh…

Vegitasei is really a nice looking planet from up here. Reminds me of a little more rugged version of Earth. Damned good view. And the Saiyajins get such a nice planet, and haven't wrecked it with their continual training yet? Then again, that's probably why it looks so 'rugged'…

Aside from the view, the trip was pretty uneventful. Also, there's no communications link between my capsule and #8's. So then we landed. Instead of the greeting with open arms thing you'd expect for ambassadors, we just got a few stares. Typical.

Another thing worth noting, the gravity here is somewhere around five to seven times that of Earth. Just need to move around a bit though. I've had worse.

"Are you two the ambassadors?" A Saiyajin guard asks us. "Yes." "HMPH! Follow." Talk about a warm reception. We went immediately to the King's room.

"So, you two are the ambassadors then?" The King asks. He looks like an older version of Prince Vegita with a beard. "Yes." He likely knows what we're here about. "Fine. Guard! Show them to their room. You may have a look around if you want, we will talk later." Fair enough. But the King seems to have a scornful look on his face. Then again, I've never seen a Saiyajin look anything but scornful except Bardock and Radditz, including everyone I've passed here.

The guard leads us to our rooms, and then leaves us just as quickly. "Shit… no wonder Freeza doesn't do this himself." #8 complains. "Yeah, well, all that matters is that we're able to talk buisiness." "How about we try to see if we can find Prince Vegita?" I suggest. "So long as we find Nappa too." #8 replies. That's fine, this should be fun…

After a hour and a half, we run across Prince Vegita and Nappa. "What are YOU two doing here?" Nappa demands. Seems he hasn't changed a bit. #8 grins sadistically "We're Freeza's ambassadors." "WHAT! You fools couldn't-" Nappa starts, but is cut off by Vegita, as usual. "Shut up Nappa! They are here to strengthen out relations with Freeza, I will not let your idiocy get in the way of that!" Then Vegita turns his head to me and glares daggers at me. "Of course, that doesn't mean YOU will leave here unscarred." I grin. "Still cocky as ever, I see. Your power level has increased, but you are not near mine." "As long as it takes, I WILL defeat you!" Persistent, isn't he? Then again, he will beat me if I pound him enough. "Well then, I've nothing do to, and fighting IS your race's top priority, so how about we go for a spar? And then Nappa and #8 can resolve their issues too." Vegita grins. That'd be the third time I've seen a Saiyajin do that. But is Vegita grinning because he got his fight, or because Nappa will be put in his place once again. Or does he have a trick up his sleeve?

All four of us go towards the training rooms. Nappa and #8 go into one, while Vegita and I go into a separate one. "So… what gravity are you used to?" Vegita asks me, while standing by a switch, which he flips. All of a sudden, I feel a massive weight come upon me! "What the-?" but I have no time to finish, Vegita dashes forward and knocks my ass to the ground. Apparently, HE'S accustomed to this. I measure the gravity to be about fifteen times that of earth, and adjust as quickly as possible. But Vegita still gets in some more punches and kicks.

Finally, I adjust enough to function, and uppercut Vegita in the jaw, knocking him back. Flying forward, I draw my blade and slash Vegita across the chest as well. But then Vegita kicks me in the head, knocking ME away. Seems he's been improving on stamina too. But I'm still fighting against this gravity a bit.

Then I see Vegita flying straight at me. An easily avoidable move, but for some reason, Vegita's hands are facing the opposite direction of me. Then, Vegita fires a beam, making him fly at me faster than I can adjust, and his shoulder guard slams into my face.

"Feh." I mutter, while spitting a slight amount of blood, he cracked my lip. I leap forward with a kick towards his face, Vegita dodges of course, but if he wants to play beam propulsion with me… I start charging a beam in my left hand.

Vegita appears behind me, like I anticipated, but then I unleash a beam from my extended right foot, shooting me right at Vegita. Since we're practically at point blank range, Vegita can't do jack shit as I shove my left hand in his face, the one with the ki ball.

Very nice outcome, Vegita speeds like a bullet into the wall, caving it in only a bit. Those walls sure are solid! Of course, I'm still flying forward from that beam I shot from my foot. Now I charge up my sword. Poor Vegita didn't see it coming.

I bring down the blade, making a large gash through his armor and chest, but I stop short of hitting vitals. I'm the ambassador, I don't want to kill the prince of the planet I'm trying to improve relations with. But the attack did it's job, and placed Vegita as the loser.

"Get up." I say, dragging him to his feet. He immediately smacks away my hand. "Keep this shit up Vegita, and you really will beat me one day." I say to him, referring to his unique moves, before leaving to check how badly Nappa is being torn up.

I come too late to see anything except #8 dragging Nappa to the regeneration tanks. Seems #8 had her fun.

When we arrive, Nappa gets thrown in a tank, while Vegita just opts for a patch. "So, what are you here to talk about?" inquires Vegita. I'd think he'd know, but I won't insult him with that. "To try for at least another decade of service and to retain the 50 profit split." I respond. Vegita laughs, rather sardonically too. "HA! You don't need an ambassador for that! We'll gladly do that, you make it sound as if we are upset with Freeza! Why would we, when he gives us the chance to fight to our hearts content?" Well, from what Freeza said, I was certainly under the impression that there were some rough edges to work out. Then again, there was that little hint I ran across about Freeza's uncertainty of the Saiyajin. What's wrong here?

The same guard from earlier comes in, and summons us to the Kings audience chamber. Vegita was also summoned for a mission from Freeza. Negotiations were over in a matter of minutes, and we were on our way. Why were we given such a wasteful mission?

We reported back and prepared to leave. But we decided to stop off at the local pub first. I mulled my thoughts of the mission in my mind as I sipped at some sort of Saiyajin alcoholic 'delicacy'. The only answer I could figure was that Freeza was afraid of the Saiyjin and wanted to make double sure he was on good relations with them. But that's impossible! Freeza could waste the planet with a flick of a finger if he wished, why would he be afraid of them?

"WE MUST FIGHT! FREEZA WILL BE THE END OF US IF WE DON'T!" Wha? Isn't that… Bardock? "Whatever Bardock, you must have had a few too many drinks!" one guard replies. The others laugh at that. "Fine! You'll see! You'll see when I'm right, when you're all dying helplessly, unlike a warrior should! I, for one, will beat Freeza, or die trying like a true warrior!" Is he out of his mind? "Hey man, you can't be serious. Calm down, alright?" another guard says as he comes up to Bardock. "Get off of me! You'll all see!" Bardock yells as he shoves the guard off of him. Bardock comes up to me. "#9, I didn't expect to see you here. You have to listen to me." "Eh… Bardock, well…" I stammer. "Follow me."

Well, I might as well follow, Bardock leads me to a back alley where he, #8, and I are alone. "Look, on my last mission, one of the planet natives decided to take revenge on me. He did it by giving me the… 'gift'… to see the future. I see the future, and I see Freeza destroying this planet." This man is gone. I don't know what's happened to Bardock, but his mind is seriously off kilter. "Look Bardock… I hope you understand if I don't really believe you. I don't know what's wrong with you, but Freeza's my employer, yours too. The Saiyajin are a significant source of income for him, he wouldn't just kill you on a whim." I explain to Bardock. "Fine, you don't believe me either. I can't blame you though, it is a bit farfetched, but it's true." Bardock seems to be as close as a Saiyajin gets to pleading. Something is REALLY wrong with him. "Look, we have to go back soon, how about you come with us, and we can fix whatever the hell is wrong with you, alright?" I offer. "NO DAMNIT! You don't understand! This is what WILL happen. If you won't help me, I'll have to do it alone!" and with that, Bardock runs off.

"Ooookay…" #8 mutters. "I say we leave now, ok?" I ask. "I'm with you on that." and we head for our space capsules, close them up, and take off to the space station.

Chapter 19

Around an hour later, there seems to be a lot of commotion outside. And Freezer's ship also seems to be getting closer to the planet, to the point where you could step outside if you so wished.

"What the hell is going on?" I mutter. "Who knows, I hope it's not Bardock." #8 replies. We head for the nearest window to see what's going on, and we turn on our scouters for the audio.

"Now everything's going to change…" we hear Bardock say over the radio. Bardock is floating in front of the two mingled Saiyajin and Freeza armies, and we see Freeza outside, holding a tiny ki ball on the tip of his index finger.

"The fate of the Planet Vegitasei… My fate… Kakarotto's fate… And also your fate you bastard!" and with that, Bardock quickly charges up a ki ball and flings it at Freeza. "This is the end!"

All of a sudden, Freeza laughs maniacally and that tiny ki ball starts to expand very, very quickly. The fireball from Bardock is quickly absorbed into Freeza's ki ball. Then, Freeza aims at Vegitasei below, and fires. This huge fireball seemingly 'floats' downwards, taking out all of the troops outside as well as the entire planet of Vegitasei…

Our jaw's slacken. Of all things, we had not expected this… Did Bardock really think he could take Freeza? And why had Freeza just wasted Vegitasei when he had us go there as ambassadors just moments ago? Well, at least any surviving Saiyajins will get one hell of a power increase…

Then it all clicks into place. Freeza wasn't afraid of the Saiyajins of now, but of the Saiyajins of the future. Imagine how powerful they'd be several decades from now, I mean, anything to do with fighting and their power level increases by leaps and bounds. And their life is nothing BUT fighting! When they're that powerful, what do they need Freeza for?

All of a sudden, I hear a voice I recognize over the scouter's radio.

"What do you mean it's been destroyed?" I hear Vegita ask a radioman.

At least Vegita is alive. But I've had enough for one day. I turn the scouter off. They'll probably feed him some bullshit so that he will remain loyal to Freeza. This has been a long day…

Later that night…

I can't sleep. Certain thoughts running through my head are keeping me awake. Thoughts like how disposable are we to Freeza? You know, really uplifting thoughts.

But seriously, what are we to do? If we just slack off, or quit, we get killed, Freeza wouldn't want anyone else to hire people with abilities like masked ki. But if we get too good, will Freezer kill us out of fear of what we'll become? Either way, we're dead.

Damn it all to hell! Well, nothing to do for now but just to try and live my life…

Chapter 20

I wake up with only a couple hours sleep. But now I've come down to three choices… One, we can just go along as before and see what happens. Two, we can try to make ourselves very undistinguished and leave his service soon as possible, but that would make us very disposable. Or three, do our damnedest to become too powerful for Freeza to handle. I think I'll go with a mix of choices number one and three.

Damn, still early. But the way I'm going now, I'm not going to catch any more sleep. I'll go to the training area, try and occupy myself.

I just dress in my 'normal' clothing (the clothing from before enlistment to Freeza's army. He does do that from time to time) and head off.

I start going through several exercises. Several hundred push ups, sit ups, pull ups, I throw some punches and kicks, do flips, and basically keep myself occupied for a long while. Also, I break off several punching bags, which were enhanced for stronger individuals, not enhanced enough it seems.

"How long have you been here?" #8's voice startles me a bit. "Since I woke up." "Which was… when?" "I don't know. At least a few hours ago." "…What's wrong?" #8 asks after a bit. "Nothing." "Bullshit!" is it that apparent? "Just a case of insomnia, that's all." "Yeah, and how often do you have problems sleeping? Almost never from what I can tell, unless you're really excited or upset. And you sure as hell don't look excited." #8 replies calmly. "Just weighing some options. I think too much, that's why I'm exercising." "Still thinking about Vegitasei?" "…Yeah."

#8 steps forward, and stops me from exercising. "Lets go back to our room then." Whatever. We head back to our room. "What the hell is upsetting you that much? It's not like you and I don't clear planets." "It's not that, I don't give a shit about the planet itself. Just about the reasons behind it." "Oh? Please explain." Why the hell not?

"Basically, from what I can tell, Freeza was afraid of the Saiyajins." "HA! Good one!" #8 throws at me. "Heh, laugh all you want, but it's the truth. But he's not afraid of the Saiyajins of today… if there are any left now. He was afraid of what the Saiyajins would become. Think about it, whenever a really Saiyajin fights, their power level increases dramatically. And their lives revolve around fighting. Imagine how powerful they would become, Freeza was afraid of that, so he killed them while they were still manageable. Our mission wasn't actually to boost our relations with them, but to make sure they remain ignorant. Freeza probably was going to kill them later, but Bardock gave him a convenient excuse." "So what does that have to do with us? I think Freeza made an intelligent decision." #8 retorts.

"Yes, it was a good decision. But what does it have to do with us you ask? Look at how we are doing, we're going along damned well, we're killing machines, we tear everyone up! Just like the Saiyajins tore everyone up too. What if we become TOO good? Will Freeza dispose of us too?" "Is that's what's bothering you?" "Yeah, pretty much." "HAHAHA! Don't waste your time #9! Just live life as it is, I doubt Freeza would do such a thing, he has our complete loyalty. Remember, we were on a mission of diplomacy, they most likely did have some problems between them. When Bardock attacked, Freeza probably decided the Saiyajins were too unstable. Besides, it was the Saiyajins who attaked us, not the other way around. Now get over it!"

Maybe she's right. But I just can't shake the feeling of impending doom. But she is right in the aspect that I need to just get over it and live. There's not really anything I can do.

"I'm going to the cafeteria, interested?" #8 offers. "Not really." "Suit yourself." and #8 leaves. After a little while, I decide to walk around outside of my room out of boredom.

I run across Zarbon, no Fatty though. "Hey, you look down, did 'Fatty' get you back?" Zarbon says with a smirk. I grin back "Nah, he never will, and I'll just torture him more. Say… you don't seem to be doing anything, how about a spar?" I offer. "Anytime." Perfect.

We immediately go to the training rooms. "Want weapons?" I ask. "Your call." I decide to discard my weapon into the wall. I think the people in charge of maintenance are getting pissed at me. Oh well.

"HEY! Zarbon and #9 are gonna fight!" I hear someone yell out. Gee, we'll even get our own crowd. We both have reputations now, because of our impeccable records.

"You start." I tell Zarbon. He shrugs and leaps at me. I dodge his fist and block his kick. He then throws a point blank ki blast at me, which is weak, but wasn't designed to hurt… not that anything could hurt me anyway. Zarbon used that blast to try and mask his movements, it didn't work and I sock him in the face, drawing first blood.

"Damn you, you marked me!" "Yeah, and I'll do more than that if you don't move!" I yell while I shoot my own beam at him. The beam is blocked, and Zarbon leaps at me and punches me in the gut. I then punch Zarbon several times in the face and knee him in the chin.

Zarbon staggers away, and then tries to kick me in the face. It misses but he then punches me in the face. While I'm stronger, I'm not so much stronger that he can't get any hits on me.

Zarbon unleashes a flurry of kicks and punches, he lands a few, but they do little damage. Putting my full weight into it, I take a few hits but land a massively damaging punch. I then throw in a few kicks about as damaging. Zarbon staggers a bit, drops to the ground, and then rises up with an uppercut which nails me in my jaw. I turn my head towards him to see him trying to recover from my latest hits. "Nice try, but not good enough Zarbon. Next time you shouldn't hold back." I tell him as I fire a powerful beam at him. Just in a nick of time, Zarbon throws up a ki shield, but the beam still breaks through partially and slams Zarbon into the wall.

All of a sudden, Zarbon's body starts twitching and moving in rather uncomfortable looking ways. Zarbon then transforms into a rather ugly looking version of himself. "You sure you don't want me to hold back?" he says with a grin. "Would you rather have a beat down?" "Fine then. But I must admit, it's been a long time since I've needed to go all out against someone." Good to know. "Then let's go all out!" I say as I reach my right hand out. My sword comes flying into my hand. I've learned to use my ki to manipulate some objects, my sword being one of them due to the metal that makes it.

I leap forward and swing my sword at Zarbon. He blocks it with a scaly forearm but I fly under his arm and kick him in the jaw. Zarbon grabs my leg and flings me into the wall. Leaping forward once more, I charge up as much ki as I can hold. I use this ki to increase my speed and strength. Zarbon tries to block, but my blade makes it through and I make a huge gash across his chest. Zarbon staggers back, and I swing at his head. He moves out of the way but gets cut on his cheek anyway.

Unfortunately, I can only use my ki in this manner for so long. I use my sword as a focal point and fire a powerful beam at Zarbon. The smoke clears and Zarbon seems pretty much unhurt by that attack. "You do well for being 6000 points under me. But it's time I end this." and Zarbon dashes forward and socks me in the face.

I fly backwards but stop myself before I hit a wall. While Zarbon rushes me, I take off my coat and throw it over Zarbon's face. The technique didn't work, since Zarbon just knocks it out of the way and knees me in the face. This time I do slam into the wall.

Zarbon tries to knee me again, but I bring up my sword and 'block' it with the point of my blade. It wasn't a very effective block, but it sure hurt Zarbon like hell.

"ARRGH!" Zarbon screams. Even though he's in immense pain for the moment, he charges up a very powerful ki blast and fires it at me. The beam itself misses me, but an explosion ensues and the aftershock flings me to the ground.

Zarbon then flies forward, creates a blade made of ki, and slashes my sword arm from shoulder to halfway down my forearm. I just get up, switch arms, and try my best that way.

One of Zarbon's now gigantic hands grabs me. As soon as Zarbon brings me face to face with him, I start head butting him repeatedly. Naturally, Zarbon pulls me away from him, but I just hit him with eye beams to continue the hurt. In response, Zarbon flips me around so that I'm upside down and pile drives me into the ground.

I leap out and we both look at each other for a bit. Damn, Zarbon sure looks torn up. First off, he's in that 'monster' form. As for injuries, he has a severed kneecap, a split lip, cut cheek, gash across his chest, and several smaller wounds.

As for myself, I also look torn up. I have a gash on my forehead from head butting his scaly head so much, a large cut straight down my right arm, a damaged rib, and other various small wounds.

While we're waiting, I start charging up all the ki I can into my sword. Zarbon leaps forward. I then stab my sword into the ground and unleash all of that stored ki. The blast knocks us both across the room in opposite directions. My sword flies out of my hand and into the wall.

Slightly dazed, I look up hoping that my suicide move had won the battle. It hadn't. But it did do some damage. Zarbon starts floating towards me, looking very bloodied and scorched. He's also swaying a bit.

I get to my feet and stagger a bit. Sure, I don't feel pain, but I can still get disoriented or be unable to balance due to an injury. In this case, it's both. My left leg is badly torn up.

The last thing I see before getting knocked out is Zarbon's fist slamming into my face.

Chapter 21

Man, that was one hell of a fight. Not to mention the fact that I'm still in the tank and have already heard people talking about it. That's one to go in the books.

Another good thing is that my power level went up a bunch. My power level increases by several points whenever I'm forced to fight all out for prolonged periods. It's now at 26,500. And that was a long fight, I might add.

Hey… that's an idea for an upgrade. Make it so that we gain more of a power level boost when we go all out. I'll have to work on that.

"DING!" About time. I was in there long enough. I see Zarbon come out too, in his more mammalian form. "Good fight." I tell Zarbon. "By the way… you didn't bring me here, did you?" I ask. "No. I passed out not long after I knocked you out." Well that's good to know. I'm glad all my work wasn't for naught.

I bid Zarbon farewell and go to the laboratory. Let's see, there's got to be some way to do the upgrade I was thinking of…

Hours later… This should do it! Might as well upgrade myself, then I'll get #8… "Hey! #9, there you are!" nevermind, no need to get her. "I thought you were just going to be moping all day, then I hear about your fight with Zarbon. All the details seem to be true, according to your power level increase." Yeah, I love my new power. "Hey, #8, I've got a new upgrade." "Cool, you haven't done one of those in a while." "Yeah, yeah, I know. But the way this one works, is that we get more of a power level increase when we go all out." I explain. "Really? Then hook me up." Fine. I upgrade #8, then myself. Afterwards, we go towards our room.

"So, how do we test this upgrade?" #8 asks. "How else? We wait until we get into a fight for our lives and find out if it works." #8 shrugs at that.

We enter our room. "So, I take it you've gotten over that paranoia now?" #8 asks. "Not completely, and I still stick with my story. But you were right on one account, there isn't much we can do. So I might as well not bother." I reply. "Good enough then." "Yeah." "What do you think our next mission will be?" #8 asks. "I dunno. Hey… how about we check out Vegita's mission status, just for the hell of it?" I suggest. "Sure, why not?"

Eh, nothing that interesting, what a shame. But it does seem that Nappa and Radditz are alive as well.

I ditch the computer and plop down on my bed. "Damn…" I mutter as I look disdainfully at my torn up clothes. "I really liked those clothes too." I'm currently wearing my armor now, better than being naked. "Well, maybe you should have changed first." #8 responds. "Ya know…" I start "Despite the dangers, I really like this life. Free living space, nice paycheck, fun job." "Yeah… but will you be saying that if you screw up and die?" "Probably. And I suppose I'd go to hell too for all the people I've killed." #8 grins. "You've never given a shit about that kind of stuff, have you?" "Nope, especially since I expect we're going to live for a lot longer." I respond.

We then go to sleep, together…

Chapter 22

I woke up before #8. There are still things to sort out, even though there's nothing worth depressing myself over. Which is why I know sit in a chair, still in our room, only half dressed.

There should be an imbalance, since Saiyajins were a large source of income for Freeza. Which could mean either a larger workload for all soldiers, or an increased amount of soldiers.

"Thinking again?" #8 asks, naked and starting to dress. "Yeah, nothing as morose as yesterday though. Just about what an imbalance the destruction of Vegitasei could have on the Corps." I respond. "I know what you mean. We lost a whole lot of soldiers, Saiyajins and ones from the ship alike. Least it's not cramped." True. In fact, it isn't cramped at all. There aren't nearly as many soldiers around the station as there used to be. Of course, that doesn't mean there's not a lot of soldiers.

I walk over, and check the computer. New mission already? Seems that there'll just be less hiring and more work.

**From: Lord Freeza**

**To: #8 and #9**

**Planet #0107 of my domain has entered a state of unrest. Someone by the name of Kilros has started a rebellion to take the planet as his own. I want you two to go to this planet, kill the leader Kilros, and also kill any opposition and followers. Try not to damage anything unnecessarily, it is my planet. Leave within the hour, time is of the essence. Take capsules #894 and #125. Good luck.**

**-Your Employer, Lord Freeza**

"Sounds interesting." #8 comments as we download the necessary information. Yes, it does.

With little to do, we head to our capsules and take off. I take one last look at the station as I pass out…

Chapter 23

We land on the planet. Statistics from the ship tell me we've been traveling for five days. Apparently, five days is all that this 'Kilros' character needed. I step outside of my capsule onto the landing zone and look upwards.

Explosions fill the air as the opposing forces tear each other asunder. #8 steps out and looks upwards as well. "According to our data, we should be in an occupied base. We might as well check this one first." #8 tells me. That's the pain of this mission, we don't know which base Kilros is in.

We could sneak in, we could blow a hole in the building, but instead we just strut right in through the door. The rebels didn't like that much.

"Who are you! Answer me!" A startled guard wearing a red headband and two red armbands yells at us. I just cut him down, drawing out my blade and swinging in one fluid motion. #8 punches her fist through a second guard's chest who wears the same head and armbands. We keep walking. Apparently, red bands means it's a rebel.

#8 and I tear through several other guards, all of them only ranging around 2000. Finally, the remaining rebels get the idea and leave us be. They still follow us though.

"Here we go, now we're in business!" I exclaim as I spot a computer terminal. "NO!" a guard shouts from behind me. I stab him without looking. Then, I sit down and start reading through the files. "Got ya!" I say enthusiastically as I discover the location of the leader. "I found the base, let's go!" I tell #8.

"They're after Kilros! GET THEM!" I hear a guard scream. All the guards then jump us. Sure, a few guards at 2000 isn't a problem, but a hundred or so of them, give or take twenty, can start to complicate things…

#8 and I get separated quickly, but I have my own problems. I stab one guard, kick another in the head, and ki blast a third through the chest. One guard hits me in the back of the head, but I just lift him by the throat and crush his windpipe, as well as his veins and part of his spine. Two ki blasts hit me in the stomach, doing little more than surprise me.

I've had enough of this. I charge my ki in my blade, then I swing it aiming for the ground a few feet in front of me. The blast tears apart the ground and kills fifteen guards with it.

About ten beams hit me in my back, making me stagger forward and nearly fall. Five more blasts hit my side. Things are going from bad to worse.

I leap straight up, dodging about seven more beams. Damn bastards. They know how to work together all right. I throw my own beam at them and disintegrate five guards. The remaining guards fly upwards to chase me. But they aren't doing too well themselves, I've already killed twenty four of them. Mental note, next base, just kill all guards whether they are attacking you or not.

Ten guards grab me and slam me into the wall. They're too close for me to punch or kick, let alone use my sword. Seven more guards grab me from behind.

I elbow one guard in the gut, head butt a second guard, and crack the ribs of yet another with my knee. The guards try to pull me down, but I start thrashing violently. Another guard gets head butted, I blow off the head of another guard with eye beams, and free my right arm by ripping off the arms of two other guards. I backhand a guard in the face, pull out my blade, and cut the guard in front of me in half.

A large explosion occurs in the background, and I see #8 leap in the air while 'machine gunning' her share of guards with ki blasts. Using this distraction, I free my left leg and kick one guard upside the head. I twist out of their grip and decapitate two guards in one swing of my sword. Kicking off of a guard's chest, I fly backwards and prepare another ki blast. This one is rather destructive, actually it's my most powerful, and I require both of my hands to stand against the recoil.

When I'm done charging, I shove my palms forward. A blood red ball of ki rests in my palms. It then shoots outward, and the beam spreads hitting more guards (like Gohan's Masenko against Freeza on Namek, if you've seen it, you KNOW what I'm talking about). I kill damn near all the guards with this attack, as well as trash the room.

All the remaining guards just run for their lives. "What the hell was that?" #8 asks me. "My 'Bloody Eraser'." I respond. "What kind of name is that?" "A practical name, the beam is blood red, and it pretty much 'erased' all of those guards, didn't it?" I argue back.

"No matter, we should head for the base with Kilros." #8 states. We rush out of the base, by making our own door. The place was pretty much wasted in our section anyway.

Both of our power levels increased to 29,000 for me and 24,500 for #8.

When we took our first 'good' look outside, we were stunned. All hell had broken loose, and I don't mean the current battle. I mean that things went to hell a while back. The ground is strewn with the dead bodies of rebels and Freeza's soldiers alike, buildings demolished, craters lining the streets where the dead bodies didn't lie. And there's a huge brawl still occurring, just over the dead bodies. We ignore it and move on to the base.

The base is already under siege when we arrive. This is the mother of all brawls. Thousands of soldiers from either side fill the sky in a battle for ultimate control over the planet. The base containing Kilros is pretty torn up, but soldiers still man the walls. It looks bright as day, even though it's night.

"Shit…" I mutter. "Let's use the confusion to our advantage…" #8 starts to tell me. "We can practically walk right in while they're at each other's throats." I nod in confirmation.

We fly in through the front gates, killing any rebels in our way. While brave, the rebel's attempts to stop us were useless, and we race up several stairs towards the main room.

I shoot down the door with a ki blast and gaze upon… some THING. This guy looks weird as hell. It's skin is a crummy, grayish brown. Another characteristic is size, it's not very broad, but it's at least seven feet tall. And it's muscles seem weak and stringy, but those black bone spikes that extend for about four feet out of each forearm look wicked along with the claws extending from it's two front toes and one back toe on each foot. As for facial features, the eyes are pure white, no pupils, no hair, no lips or cheeks, nostrils minus the cartilage, and very sharp looking teeth. As for armor, it's wearing armor similar to Bardock's, a black and green mixture that fit's nicely with it's skin tone. Despite it's strange appearance, it's not weak by any means. I read a power level of 20,000 on it.

"Who a'e 'ou?" It asks. I'm having a hard time understanding it. It talks with a slow, lethargic speed, and misses a few pronunciations due to its lack of lips. "Where is Kilros?" I demand. "I, a' Ki'ros'." it says. "What 'issiness ha'e you?" Kilros asks us. "We are here to kill you and stop this foolish rebellion." #8 responds.

"'ery well, 're'are to die!" Kilros responds.

"Let me take it." #8 asks. "Why?" "It's closer to my power and I want a good fight. Besides, you can jump in if there are any real problems." #8 reasons. "…fine." I tell her. #8 grins and draws her sword.

While slightly weaker than #8, Kilros more than makes up for it with his strange techniques. #8 leaps forward and stabs at Kilros. Instead of leaping away, he twists his body at an impossible angle ending up with his legs still in the same position, but his torso almost twisted all the way around #8. Kilros then pulls its legs towards itself, tripping her. It grabs #8, knees her in the stomach, then it's leg goes inverted and kicks her in the back of the head! #8, is of course, unfazed, but has a nasty gash on the back of her head. She stabs her sword into Kilros's chest.

Kilros staggers back, and pulls the sword out. #8 runs forward and charges her ki into her sword. As #8 approaches, Kilros jumps up into the air, and twists it's body so that it almost covers her completely. But #8 uppercuts Kilros in the 'gut', and leaps up.

Kilros lands on all fours, and looks up to see #8's charged blade come down. It moves out of the way fast, but not fast enough. The blade cuts through Kilros's right arm, cutting it off. An oily black liquid spurts from the wound.

"AHHH!" "YOU WILL 'AY!" Kilros screams. Then, fire surrounds Kilros, and the ground under #8 explodes! #8 is flung into the air. I watch as Kilros seems to vanish and appear right under #8 and kicks her in the back.

#8 lands gracefully, but doesn't look too good. Nonetheless, she fights on, oblivious to her wounds. Kilros leaps forward, hangs in mid air, and starts slashing with the spike on its remaining arm and the claws on its feet furiously. None of the attacks hits #8, and she brings up the sword into Kilros's gut, and yanks the sword halfway up its chest.

"Live through that!" #8 yells at Kilros. "Gla'ly…" Kilros responds. #8 looks surprised as Kilros yanks out the sword and stabs her in the left shoulder with its spike. "Live thro'gh that…" Kilros mocks. #8 uses her sword to cut the spike off of Kilros's arm and leaps away. "JUST DIE DAMNIT!" #8 screams as she charges up a beam. Kilros grins, or at least, I think it's grinning. It extends it's remaining arm, and five small spikes shoot out of it's fingers, most of them missing #8, but two pierce her in the gut.

"DIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEE!" #8 shrieks as her power level jumps to 30,000. She unleashes her beam. The dark blue ki ball seems to instantaneously expand to the size of #8 herself and rockets forward. The result is, well, spectacular to say the least. Kilros is hit dead on, hits the wall, the beam breaks through the wall, and flings Kilros out onto the streets. But #8 is flung into the opposite wall due to the recoil of the beam. Her power level then drops to 28,850

#8 pulls herself out and we both look down upon the streets. It's a rather humorous sight, actually. Even after all the crap #8 did, Kilros still lived.

Unfortunately for Kilros, it seems that Freeza's forces had won the battle outside, and are now all jumping Kilros. #8 grins evilly. "Serves the bastard right!" #8 spits out.

"You're looking pretty busted up right now." I comment. "Let's find the medical center #8." #8 looks at herself. Her armor is cracked all over, she has two large stab wounds in her back, one large gash on the back of her head, a hole in her left shoulder, and two holes in her gut where the spikes hit.

#8 picks up Kilros's arm that she cut off, and throws it out onto the streets. "Fine, lets find a regeneration tank." she replies.

Chapter 24

I guard the door to the medical center, looking for rebels. A short while after I put #8 in the tank, alarms went off. The rebels brought reinforcements, hoping to kill of the rest of Freeza's forces in one last suicide attack. It's been three hours now.

There's one! I shoot a beam through a rebel's chest. The fighting is worse on the lower levels of the building. At least, from the sounds of it.

"That's the one!" Huh! Shit! I see a rebel point at me. It's not the rebel I'm worried about, it's the other thirty rebels behind him that worry me.

At least I can use this hallway as a choke point. I shoot a beam, killing one of the rebels. They charge at me.

I step out of the doorway, and close the door. The nearest rebel leaps at me, I skewer her on my blade. Two others fire at me, but I bat away their beams and fire eye beams, killing them both. I scrape the rebel off of my sword.

Four more rebels try to tackle me, but can't even budge me. I kill them quickly. "We need more men and room!" I hear one rebel shout. Shortly after that, several walls get knocked down, destroying my choke point. Twenty more rebels also run in.

Six rebels slam into me, three more shoot me in the back. I charge up my ki and let it loose into the six rebels in front of me, flash frying them. Then, I jump backwards, turn, and cut down two more rebels. I notice five of those damned rebels charging beams behind me, I jump in a nick of time. The beams fly under me and kill four rebels.

Eight rebels leap into the air and try to take me. I slash through five, but out of the corner of my eye, I notice a rebel trying to open the door to the medical center. I promptly shoot a beam at him, killing the rebel. The other three rebels get behind me and grab my arms.

"He's guarding something!" I hear a rebel yell. No… they are not getting in there.

I elbow one guard behind me, stab another through the chest, and then fling the remaining one into a wall. The rebels rush towards the medical center, I dash forward to intercept them.

The rebels start tearing at the door, I cut down three of them. Too many guards, I'll have to do my Bloody Eraser again to kill them all quickly. But I don't have enough time.

"FUCK OFF DAMNIT!" I scream as I charge up my ki as quickly as I can and leap forward. The rebels look astonished for a quick second, and I swing my blade towards all of them. Through my blade, I unleash a powerful ki blast of raw power and no control. A huge explosion rocks the blast area, flinging me backwards into the door. But the explosion also kills about twenty guards, and the collapsing ceiling kills off another seven. I start charging up for my Bloody Eraser as they struggle to get their orientation back.

Almost there… the rebels are mostly up now, and start to charge me. NOW! I fling my arms forward and my beam shoots out, disintegrating almost all of the remaining guards. There are about seven guards left. Instead of running this time, they charge me. They are on a suicide mission.

The remaining rebels didn't stand a chance, and I cut them down quickly.

Crap! #8! I hope all of this commotion didn't mess up the medical center too much. I open up the door and rush in.

Things are tossed around quite a bit, but everything is still functional.

"DING!" Finally! #8 steps out and looks at me. "Damn, you don't look that great yourself, what the hell happened to you?" #8 asks. "The rebels are staging a final suicide assault, I had a run in with a whole bunch of them." I respond. And, I don't look that great now that I check. My armor isn't really helping anymore and I'm also a bit bloodied. I rip off my broken shoulder guards and fling them to the ground.

"Sounds like the battle is ending." I tell #8. "Lets go then." #8 responds. We run downstairs.

Dead bodies are strewn everywhere, but the victors seem to be our army, Freeza's army.

"Aren't they?" one of the guards asks. "Yeah… they're the ones that kicked Kilros's ass and flung it out to us!" another guard answers. Oh shit! I'm not in the mood for publicity right now. Alas, everyone else didn't seem to share my thoughts, and they all started cheering.

"Thanks, but we're getting paid for this. It's part of our job damnit! Now, will some one give me some status reports!" I yell out to them. One guard comes towards me, she seems to be a high ranking official. "Most areas are intact, because most of the armies gathered here, at base #137. This place is completely wasted, but everything else is functional." she tells me. Good. "Thank you." #8 and I start to push our way through the crowd.

Chapter 25

It's about damn time we got to our capsules. Finally, some peace. I pull out my scouter from my capsule and dial in to the space station. "This is #9 and #8 reporting in." "Continue." "The rebellion was way out of hand when we got here. Two factions were fighting. We have dispatched the leader Kilros and the rebellion has been quelled." "Good, damage report?" "Everything is mostly intact and functional except for base #137. The final and largest battle occurred there and almost everything was damaged beyond usage." "Okay. You have permission to return to base." and the radioman cuts off the signal.

"Whew! We can finally leave this hell hole!" #8 exclaims. "You're telling me! Let's just leave already." I respond. We enter our capsules and take off of this hellish planet. I have to admit though, even though it was a bitch to do, it was sort of fun…

I wake up and exit my capsule. #8 is already out and waiting. We both head straight for our room.

"Good to be back!" I say, a bit too enthusiastically, as I take off my damaged chest plate and drop it to the ground. "Yeah, but that Kilros guy was weird." #8 responds to my outburst as she changes into her normal clothes.

"I know, any idea what the hell it was?" I ask. "Not a clue. But it couldn't of been natural. Just the way it was built." she responds. "Yeah, it was almost sickening to watch Kilros do some of those manuvers." I say as I drop into my bed like a dead weight. "Whatever it was though, it's dead." #8 says to finish the conversation. Very true.

"Shouldn't you be in a tank?" #8 asks, looking at my body. "Fuck that. I don't feel like getting up." "Don't tell me you're getting TIRED now." #8 responds with a smirk. I grin back.

"I hope our next mission isn't quite as chaotic." I mutter. "Hell, I just hope we never get another candy assed mission like when we were ambassadors to Vegitasei!" #8 states. "Oh come on, you know you enjoyed pounding Nappa." "Well, I did like that, but aside from that it was a total waste!" Fine, be that way #8.

"By the way… what the hell beam was that you pulled on Kilros?" I ask. "It was my 'Ultimate Ass Kicker' beam is what it was." I grin. "What kind of name is that?" I imitate #8 from earlier. "It's a practical name." #8 imitates me now "The beam was ultimately powerful, and it kicked Kilros's ass out of the building, didn't it?" I laugh.

"CRAP! I left my scouter in my capsule!" Damnit! Why did I do that? I rush back to my capsule. My scouter is gone. Damn, did they clean out the capsules already? Ah well, if it turns up that's fine, if not, I'll get a replacement tomorrow.

I re enter our room. "Find it?" "Nah, no huge loss though. I'll just get another one tomorrow." We then get some sleep.

Chapter 26

I wake up first, dress, and find a bag taped to our room door. Ok… I pull down the bag and open it. There was a scouter and a note.

I'm sorry I took your scouter, but I'd heard about your battle on Planet #0107, and I hadn't seen you take your scouter out of your capsule. So I borrowed it to download the audio and visual files. Thanks.

…damnit. Am I that famous or something? "Hey, what's wrong? You're just standing there." I hear #8 behind me. "Well… I got my scouter back. Someone just wanted to download the audio and visual files…" "Congrats, you're a celebrity." I hear #8 mock. "Yeah, that's the problem. I don't want to be a celebrity…" I mutter under my breath. Not that I mind congratulations, just being bothered. The only time I want attention is when I'm mocking Fatty.

I leave my room and go towards the training room. Damn, word sure does spread. At least fifteen people have congratulated me. Ten of them have seen the battle. Yet another person… "Great battle. Especially your 'Bloody Eraser'!" "Hey, where'd you get that file?" I ask. "I just got it from the data base. Wanna know where?" Yes… I do.

Grinning, I return to our room and start up the computer terminal. "What are you so happy about?" #8 asks. "You'll see…" I type in the location, and then track the person who put up the file.

… Fatty? Eh, should've known, he knows I hate fame. I'll just have to have a 'sparring' session with him…

"Who put it up?" "Fatty." "Heh, he's paying you back #9. One of these days, he'll get you." "HA! Just like one of these days Nappa will beat you!" I respond. "Nah, that won't happen, unless there's a miracle and Nappa gets some brains." #8 says gleefully.

"I'm gonna go out and… spar… with Fatty." I say with a grin. #8 has a look on her face that has 'Oh shit…" written all over it.

I find Fatty in no time. Like it's hard to miss him. He's walking with Zarbon. "HEY FATTY!" I yell at the top of my lungs. "What do YOU want?" "You were pretty polite in that letter." "I don't know what you're talking about." Fatty responds. He doesn't need to tell me, all I have to do is look into his face and I know I'm right. Not to mention that Zarbon is snickering.

"How about a sparring session Fatty?" "I have things to do…" "Ah that's bullshit and you know it." I respond happily while dragging him by his arm. And since he's so bent on fame…

"HEY! EVERYONE! Wanna see Fatty and I fight!" I yell out. Everyone starts crowding around us. The look on Dodoria's face alone is worth it. Talk about public humiliation.

"I'm really busy… I don't have time for this." Fatty protests. "Of course you do!" I exclaim. "Don't worry…" I say at a lower tone "I'll make this quick…" Fatty gulps and I grin.

"LET'S GO!" I yell at Fatty as I run at him.

Fifteen minutes later… (The fight's not worth mentioning)

I stand triumphantly over Fatty. "Damn bastard…" Fatty mutters. "Man, if you worked of some of that fat, maybe you'd be a harder target to hit!" I then sock him between the eyes, knocking Fatty out. I all of a sudden have a revelation… if I REALLY wanted to rub this into Fatty's face…

"HEY! Anyone have some duct tape?" I ask. Zarbon steps forward.

Ten minutes later, when Dodoria wakes up…

I laugh my ass off with Zarbon and several other guards as Dodoria tries his damnedest to break free of the twenty or so guards on him and kill me. "HRMPHMRPMGH!" Fatty screams at me through the duct tape. Ah man, talk about pissing someone off! Fatty's power level has even increased to 20,750 he's so pissed!

"I'm telling you Fatty, keep that tape on for a month and you'll lose several pounds! It's a sure fire way to lose some weight!" I mock Dodoria. I leave towards my room after that.

Now, for the icing on the cake. Dodoria put the visual and audio files of my fight up, huh? How about I put the visual and audio files of this latest embarrassment up? This'll be good…

"Haven't you tormented him enough?" #8 asks. "Heh, nope. The fun's just started. Fatty's gonna be the laughing stock when I publicize this!" I respond gleefully. "You're evil…" "And proud of it!"

There! I've uploaded it to the database. Now, where was it? There it is! The program I made, that messages everyone in the connected database. I use it to give everyone a link to the audio and visual file. I love this.

"All set, nothing left but to kick back and let word run along!" #8 shakes her head, I grin.

"So, how about a spar?" I ask #8. "Why? Don't you want to see what happens to Dodoria?" she mocks. "That'll take awhile. Let's spar." "Sure." We leave for the training area decked out in our armor.

"Wait… How about we go elsewhere?" I ask #8. "Elsewhere? Where else can we go? We're on a freaking space station!" "We're orbiting a planet right now, maybe we can land there…" I murmur. "Why not, let's check out a capsule." #8 responds.

We go to the blast off/landing zone. Checking out a capsule was no problem, and we head for a forested area in the planet below.

Five minutes later…

We land, exit, and prepare. "Ready?" #8 asks. "Always." #8 then jumps forward and swings her sword at me. I leap out of the way and kick her in the shin.

#8 points all of her fingers at me. Ten small lasers fly at me, two wing me. No matter, I charge up my blade and stab it into the ground. The ground starts to seemingly dig itself up in a straight line towards #8. When she moves, it follows. Finally, it catches up to her, a beam shoots right out from under her and flings her into the air.

I pull out my sword and leap after her. Even though I seemed to have it under control, I find her boot in my face. I get kicked on the side of my head with her other foot, and I ki blast her in the face.

#8 charges up a beam and fires it at me, using it as propulsion. I block the beam, but see #8 charging up a white ki ball. "Dodge this!" #8 yells. She flings the ki ball at me, I dodge it.

Feh. I dash at her and then fly upwards to catch her. "WHOOSH!" HUH! That ki ball just flied past me. I watch as it slows down and makes a U-turn. Damn, that thing's homing. I grin, #8 looks confused. Let it follow then.

I dash at #8 full speed. She tries to dodge, but I swing around behind her, grab her under her arms, and put my knee to her back. Where was that ki ball? There it is, I aim #8 towards it and dash at it full speed.

#8 finally sees what I'm doing and tries to break free, but she's too slow, and is hit right in the gut by her own attack.

While it did damage, she is unfazed. She'd better be, or there's something wrong with one of my upgrades. I get hit in the face, kicked in the gut, and then #8 breaks free by slipping under me.

"Very good…" Who? Wha? We both spin around in record time and see Freeza there in his hover chair. "You two seem to be powerful, and I've been wanting a good sparring opponent for a long time." He's not serious, he's still much stronger than us. "I want both of you to fight me. I won't go all out though." Freeza grins.

Well, as much as I want to back out, do I want to disappoint, not to mention look cowardly in front of, the leader of the Corps? Not really. #8 and I look at each other, nod, and prepare ourselves.

Chapter 27

I know we won't stand a chance, but might as well try our best. Well, at least this will be the ultimate test for that upgrade on power level increases. Unless we want to be killed by accident or something, we have to go all out.

Freeza steps out of his chair and beckons us to attack. We ready our swords and leap forward at the same time. Freeza disappears as we swing, we both jump up forward immediately and I see Freeza's foot appear where we were standing. Shit…

"Good, I think I understand where you two are at." Freeza smiles grimly and attacks. I get hit in the face with his fist and flung backwards. #8 flies right below Freeza, dodging his fist, and swings her sword upwards. Freeza catches the sword and uses it to fling #8 right at me. She slows herself down before she slams into me.

"Let's attack from opposite sides." #8 suggests. Good enough. We split up and rush Freeza. I swing first, and Freeza leaps over it. He was about to ki blast me when he gets hit in the back by #8. Freeza was unfazed and ki blasts #8 in the face instead of me.

I charge up my ki and leap upwards. Freeza dodges my kick. I unleash a flurry of kicks and slashes on Freeza. None of the attacks hit. Freeza kicks me in the gut, flinging me backwards.

I look up and see Freeza dashing at me. Damn, he's hard. All of us are airborne now. I flip behind Freeza and kick him in the back of the head. He grabs my foot, but #8 hits Freeza's arm with her sword. The blade just bounces off.

Freeza throws me into #8 and we both fly back. "Very good! You two work well as a team, I'm impressed. Don't stop though. Keep fighting." Fine… I charge up my Bloody Eraser while #8 charges up her 'Ultimate Ass Kicker'. I hope that isn't the beam's serious name.

We fire at the same time. Our beams mix into a huge green beam. The 'mega-beam' engulfs Freeza.

When the smoke clears, I see Freeza floating with his arms crossed over his face. He looks down at his forearms, they're slightly scorched. Freeza seems surprised. "This is much more than I'd expected. Let's see how well you do when I stop holding back as much now!" and Freeza leaps towards us.

A ki blast hits me in the face and I see Freeza grab #8 and sock her in the face. #8 stabs at Freeza's chest with all of her strength. She stabbed through Freeza's armor, but didn't do much else but scratch him. Freeza then knees #8 in the gut several times, socks her in the face, and flings her into the ground. All within the span of a second.

I rush at Freeza while charging my ki into my sword. Freeza just looks at me, and I unleash all of my stored up ki into a powerful beam. It didn't affect him one bit. Freeza just batted it away with his tail.

"I can see why you two are so successful. Even though you are both losing, you are doing very well. But it's time I finished this spar." Freeza says. I feel the fist in my gut before I can even see the movement. I keel over, not from pain, but that my spine will be severely warped if I don't. Freeza elbows me in the back of the head, hard.

I lose my orientation a bit, and I have to float back and refocus. Freeza, though, doesn't want to give me the chance to do so. He pulls his fist back and punches me at full force. I pull up my arms to block.

The force of the punch flings me into the ground. I yank myself out and decide to do my suicide move again. As quickly as possible, I charge up all of my ki into my sword and stab it into the ground. Freeza appears before me just in time. I unleash all of the raw power.

I'm flung back a long ways. Freeza is slightly burnt, but is pretty much unharmed. Even the ground below him is intact. I watch though, as #8 sneaks behind Freeza and charges her sword. She places the blade almost right on to Freeza's back, and fires.

This time, there's an effect, and Freeza staggers forward a bit. But then he back hands #8 full force, knocking her out cold.

"You have some very good tricks. You two will serve me well." Freeza says as he punches me in the gut and I pass out too

Later…

We wake up in a regeneration tank. At times like this, I'm glad I can't feel pain. I look down at my stomach. Freeza didn't just merely punch me, he put a hole in me too.

But my upgrade works all right! The power level increase is magnificent. Even though it was a brief battle, we went with some of our most powerful attacks.

My power level is now at 32,000 and #8 is 31,500.

By the looks of my wound though, I'm going to be here for a LONG while. But still, this kind of power level increase is amazing for only a matter of four or five days! I doubt I'll be able to obtain that kind of power again so quickly for a long while though.

Oh well, now it's time to catch some rest…


	4. Chapter 4

PART IV: A MISSION FROM HELL 

**About sixteen years later…**

**Name: #9**

**Power Level: 45,000**

**Rank: Mercenary, Hacker**

**Missions Attempted: 67**

**Missions Completed: 67**

**Missions Failed: 0**

**Success Rate: 100**

**New Physical Characteristics: Looks about four years older. Has **

**a long pony tail now.**

**Name: #8**

**Power Level: 44,250**

**Rank: Mercenary, Strategist**

**Missions Attempted: 67**

**Missions Completed: 67**

**Missions Failed: 0**

**Success Rate: 100**

**New Physical Characteristics: Looks about four years older. Has **

**long hair.**

**Name: Vegita**

**Power Level: 21,000**

**Rank: Mercenary, Saiyajin Prince**

**Missions Attempted: 107**

**Missions Completed: 107**

**Missions Failed: 0**

**Success Rate: 100**

**New Physical Characteristics: Sixteen years older. Sharper facial**

**features.**

**Name: Nappa**

**Power Level: 15,000**

**Rank: Mercenary, Former Commander of Saiyajin armies.**

**Missions Attempted: 138**

**Missions Completed: 137**

**Missions Failed: 1**

**Success Rate: 99.3**

**New Physical Characteristics: Lost hair.**

**Name: Radditz**

**Power Level: 8,000**

**Rank: Mercenary**

**Missions Attempted: 98**

**Missions Completed: 96**

**Missions Failed: 2**

**Success Rate: 97.9**

**New Physical Characteristics: Sixteen years older. Much taller.**

**Absurdly long hair.**

**Name: Freeza**

**Power Level: 150,000 (Over 700,000 hidden)**

**Rank: Leader of Freeza Mercenary Corps**

**Missions Attempted: Confidential**

**Missions Completed: Confidential**

**Missions Failed: Confidential**

**Success Rate: Confidential**

**New Physical Characteristics: None.**

**Name: Dodoria**

**Power Level: 30,000**

**Rank: Mercenary, Freeza's Bodyguard**

**Missions Attempted: Confidential**

**Missions Completed: Confidential**

**Missions Failed: Confidential**

**Success Rate: Confidential**

**New Physical Characteristics: None.**

**Name: Zarbon**

**Power Level: 30,000 (45,000 hidden)**

**Rank: Mercenary, Freeza's Bodyguard**

**Missions Attempted: Confidential**

**Missions Completed: Confidential**

**Missions Failed: Confidential**

**Success Rate: Confidential**

**New Physical Characteristics: None.**

**Name: Kewie**

**Power Level: 15,000**

**Rank: Mercenary**

**Missions Attempted: 130**

**Missions Completed: 120**

**Missions Failed: 10**

**Success Rate: 92.3**

**New Physical Characteristics: None.**

Chapter 28

Another morning, another mission. Sometimes, I can't believe I've kept this up for this long. I've been here a long time. Most of my work came out of the three year period after Vegitasei. Freeza hadn't hired enough soldiers to replace the Saiyajins, and we were hard pressed to keep up with our work.

Ah well, that's long past. Might as well check the computer for a new mission. I get out of bed and turn on the computer.

Eh? Seems we do have a new mission.

**To: #8 and #9**

**From: Lord Freeza**

**This mission is of the utmost importance. Planet Welthrox of the Freeza Domain has rebelled against our protection. They are very powerful fighters. Vegita, Nappa, and Radditz will accompany you two on this mission. They should arrive today. I cannot tell you about how strong they are, their power levels fluctuate. Some are only in the 5000 range, others go up to even 40,000. You two will take capsules #203 and #347 to Welthrox today. There will be other forces on the planet as well. Good luck.**

**-Your Employer, Lord Freeza**

"Sounds damn important…" I mutter. "Uh?" I hear #8 murmur. "Get up and look at this, now." I tell #8. She doesn't even bother to dress and reads the mission.

"Shit… this is important if it requires both of us AND three Saiyajins, all high level." #8 states.

"We'd best prepare then." I reply. We both dress in our armor, strap on our swords, download necessary information, and get our scouters.

"Let's find the Saiyajins." #8 suggests. Yeah, I guess we should. We walk out of our room and search for the Saiyajins. Naturally, they were in the training area.

"So… you're here." Vegita says. Damn straight we are. Amazingly, Nappa doesn't do anything but glare at us. "Shall we get going then?" Vegita asks. "Yes. The mission sounds important." "HMPH! Forget how important the mission is. By the sound if it, it means I get a good fight." Do the Saiyajins even care about their lives?

I check the contents of our capsule. It's filled with medical equipment. "Damn, this mission is serious…" We enter our capsules and take off.

Later…

I awaken. My computer tells me it's been five days. I step out and see the Saiyajins already out and waiting. #8 is just getting out now.

"Now what?" I ask. "WE WILL CRUSH THEM LIKE THE FLIES THEY ARE!" Nappa yells. Ugh… maybe I should let him just do that, so that I'll never have to deal with him again. "SHUT UP NAPPA! The inhabitants are much more powerful than us. It'd make no sense to waste our lives so foolishly!" Vegita yells back. Seems that Saiyajins aren't brainless though.

"I suggest we go to the leader." #8 says. "He'd be guarded." Vegita retorts. "We should try and find out how well guarded the leader is." I throw in. "No. The best maneuver would be to locate the rest of Freeza's forces." Vegita tells us. He has a point, but why not do some reconnaissance work first? "… that probably would be best." #8 agrees.

"Freeza's forces have been tagged so that we can pick them up on our scouters." I inform everyone. In record time, we locate three major groups. One consisting of thirty soldiers with power levels of 7000-10,000. Another group with Dodoria and Zarbon. Finally, the third group consists of twenty more soldiers with power levels of 10,000-12,000 which is led by Kewie.

"We should meet up with Zarbon and Dodoria first." #8 suggests. "Fine. They are the highest leveled ones anyway." Vegita agrees. We then all head for Zarbon and Fatty.

On the way, we see the remnants of some cities. There seems to have been some major fighting already.

We land in front of Zarbon and Fatty. "Why are you here?" Fatty asks, pointing at me. "Because I can kick your ass, that's why. We're here to do a mission, not bicker. I'll torture you AFTER the mission." I respond coldly.

"Zarbon, what is the status of the mission so far?" Vegita asks. "So far we have seized several of the smaller cities, but all of the major capitals remain in the hands of our enemy. We have lost three groups out of seven, including you, since this operation began." Zarbon informs all of us.

Ouch. This is a difficult mission. "We're planning to seize another city shortly. One of the capitals. Your cooperation would be a great help." Zarbon states. "We will help." I quickly reply.

"Good. By tomorrow morning, all of our forces will join together to assault the capital of SchwarzTeufel." Zarbon tells us.

"What are you doing in the meantime?" #8 asks. "Scouting and waiting." Zarbon replies.

"We can start now. Tell the forces to gather now!" Vegita demands. "Prince Vegita, SchwarzTeufel is practically a stronghold. And other forces are currently engaged." Zarbon explains. "I don't care what it takes. Get the forces gathered as soon as possible. They must have noticed that us five have landed. By tomorrow their security will be tightened, making it harder to take the city." Vegita reasons.

"I'd have to agree with Vegita on that." #8 says. "…very well. It does make sense. But it will be hard to pull this off." "Just do it."

"Squadrons one and five, report!" Zarbon calls into the scouter. "Squad one. What is it?" "Squad two, we're currently engaged." I hear Kewie say over my scouter. We're all linked to the same frequency. "Squad one, move to our location now. What is your status Squad two?" "We're almost done with this battle. But they've set up a strong defense." "Ignore that. Disengage and move to our location. We're going to take SchwarzTeufel today." "Roger. Squad five out." "Squad one, out."

Good. I take a look around. All I can get information on is the perimeter guards of SchwarzTeufel, which is twenty miles away. I read 30,000 on each guard. "Vegita, while it may be wise to attack before they tighten their security, all of their perimeter guards are at 30,000. And who knows what they've got inside their capital." I question. "Don't worry…" Radditz says "We've got tricks of our own." Whatever.

Three hours later…

Squads one and five have gathered here with us. "So… what's the plan?" Kewie asks Zarbon. Vegita steps in before Zarbon can answer "Radditz, Nappa, and I will start the assault. We will attack on three different sides. Afterwards, #8, #9, Zarbon, and Dodoria will follow me. Squad one follows Nappa and squad five follows Radditz." "Who put you in charge?" asks Kewie.

"No one did. But Vegita's plan should work." Zarbon interjects. "You all heard! Get moving to your positions!" Zarbon orders.

"I don't know what the hell you're planning on, but it better be good." I tell Vegita as we move into position. "Trust me, it'll be good." Vegita replies.

Fifteen minutes later…

"Are all people in their positions?" Zarbon asks. Everybody confirms that they are. "Good! Start the assault!" Zarbon orders.

All of a sudden, Vegita charges up a white ki ball, and flings it into the air.

SHIT! I know what he's gonna do now! This is what Bardock was working on all those years ago.

Vegita stares into the bright light, and starts transforming into a giant ape. I see two more like Vegita in the distance.

Vegita is now at 210,000, Nappa's at 150,000. and Radditz ranks 80,000. The three apes stomp forward and tear at the defenses.

Explosions fill the air as beams hit the capital, several of the perimeter guards are killed.

"Remaining soldiers, ready? ATTACK!" Zarbon yells into the scouter radio. Zarbon transforms, and all four of us rush forward.

We spread throughout the remaining buildings of the interior city, and start killing all the high level people we can.

I'm now alone inside a military base. Everyone inside averages about 15,000. Luckily, they aren't all in one group and I'm able to handle them all swiftly.

Strangely, they all look like humans. Whatever. The only thing distinguishable is that they all wear the older black versions of the standard armor.

"Status report!" I hear Zarbon say over the radio. "Few casualties in squad one." "Same for squad five." Kewie reports. "I'm fine." #8 says. "I'm fine Zarbon!" Dodoria says gruffly. "No injuries." I report.

"Good! I have located the capital building, I'm sending the location to all of you. While the Saiyajins handle the rest of the city, we will attack the capital building. Is that clear?" Zarbon orders. Everyone agrees.

I head for the location immediately.

Everyone has gathered. "EVERYONE! Spread out around the building!" Zarbon orders.

"Now the shit hits the fan…" #8 mutters. She had no idea how appropriate those words were. Mere seconds after muttering them, guards start flowing out of the building, several ranking around 30,000, but most around 15,000.

"We are a sovereign planet! Stop your assault and leave us in peace. Or we will be forced to retaliate!" the head guard demands. He ranks at 33,000. "NEVER!" Zarbon yells out. "You had attacked Freeza's forces on this planet. Your independence is forgivable, but we will make you pay for attacking Freeza directly!"

At that, both armies collide. Zarbon, still in his transformed state, leaps forward and attacks the leader of the guards.

I have my own problems though. Several guards rush me and I have to maneuver to take them on one at a time.

The first guard swings at me, I duck and bring my sword up through his chest. Another guard attacks me from behind, I stab her through the throat.

I leap in the air as two guards try to tackle me. Charging up some ki, I blast one guard away and the other leaps after me. He swings at me, misses, and I kick the guy in the ribs, forcing him to keel over. I then decapitate him.

Three beams hit me from behind. I charge up some more ki, whirl around, and blast two guards.

I jump down to the ground and cleave two more guards in half. A strong beam hits my right side, and I get knocked over to my left. Five guards try to jump me, but I slide under them and stab one of them through the back.

Damn, this is annoying. I see the apes destroying more buildings off in the distance. Yeah, you have your fun.

I stab two more guards and kick off a third into the air. Four guards leap after me. I cut down one and dodge ki blasts from the other three.

I swing blindly and cut off the hand of one of the guards. He screams loudly and the other two rush me.

Two feet barely miss my head as I fly backwards. I stab one guard in the gut and cut another across the chest hitting several vital organs.

Someone kicks me in my back. I backhand the person in the head without looking. The guard grabs her skull and flies backwards.

Hmm… most of the guards seem to be ignoring me right now. Time to try out a new technique.

I start building up all the ki I can and place it in my sword. Soon as I'm done, I flip the blade tip down, and fling it into the building.

The blade stabs into the ground and makes a large explosion, killing several of the guards still within the building.

I rush forward to retrieve my sword. Two 30,000 level guards stand in my way. They rush me, but I kick one in the head and dodge the other. I continue forward, and use my ki to make my sword fly into my hands.

The second guard grabs me from behind. I slam my skull into his and then stab the sword into his stomach.

I survey the area. While fighting valiantly, the warriors of this planet are losing to our forces. Not to mention they are now disorganized since Zarbon has killed the leader of this group of guards.

The native soldiers start to retreat.

No they don't. I start charging up my Bloody Eraser. Soon as I'm ready, I fire forward and disintegrate a good number of retreating soldiers, and injure several more.

The rest of our armies dash forward to take prisoners, or execute them, either one.

Everyone except Zarbon, Dodoria, #8, and I.

Zarbon transforms back to his normal form.

"What now?" I ask Zarbon. "It looks like it's handled here." Zarbon replies. "Squads one and five! As soon as you finish off any wounded enemies, take the rest of this city. Squad leaders! Use your best judgement, but stay away from the Saiayjin!" Zarbon commands.

"Now, us four will attack this building." Zarbon says, pointing at the building I previously damaged. "Fine by me. But instead of destroying this building, we should first look for valuable information." #8 suggests.

"No, that is unneeded. We'll just level the building." Fatty says. "No, she has a point Dodoria. We will search for any valuable information while killing any non Freeza soldiers." Zarbon counters.

"It's settled then. #8 and I will go together while you and Fatty will go in another pair." I tell Zarbon. "Fine."

#8 and I take the east wing of the building.

All of the guards in the building had exited to fight us outside near the end of the battle. So there was no opposition, and we just killed everyone else cleanly.

We didn't find much, but we did find this was one of the most guarded cities on this planet. The only city guarded more than this one is the main capital of the planet. #8 and I rallied back to the entrance.

Zarbon and Dodoria were waiting. "Find anything?" Zarbon asks. "Nothing except that this is the second most guarded city." I respond. "I found that each major city has a head of local military. That was the leader of the guards I fought." Zarbon informs us. "Good. Now lets waste this building." Fatty says.

We charge up beams and just level the damned thing.

"Wait… instead of demolishing this base completely, we could use this as a temporary base." #8 offers.

"It's not too late, the Saiyajins have been working mostly on the interior." Zarbon replies. He then reaches upwards and shoots out the ki ball in the sky made by Vegita.

"All squadrons! This city will be our temporary base of operations. For the next few days, we will work on patching up the defenses. Is that clear?" Zarbon orders. Everyone agrees.

Chapter 29

After wasting the rest of the natives, we worked on rebuilding the defenses. Luckily, we only had three major holes to patch up. We all started melting concrete with our ki, reshaping it, and using it as cement blocks. Afterwards, we'd melt the blocks again to seal it together.

It's not exactly an architectural masterpiece, but it will hold.

We're also working on rebuilding the ki shield, so that one ki blast won't waste a large section of a wall.

Also, we dragged all of our capsules over to a large hanger in the city. For practical purposes we tore down the roof of it.

Damn… just by the fact we're making a base means that this will be a long mission. It's now the second day after the siege of SchwarzTeufel.

Two more groups of soldiers have arrived, squadrons eight and nine. They're just two groups of fourty soldiers ranging around 10,000 each.

Sometimes, I wonder why Freeza is working so hard to capture this planet. I always come to the same conclusion. This is a planet full of very powerful soldiers, if they're going to leave Freeza, Freeza wants them dead. The fact that they attacked Freeza's army here is just a convenient excuse.

We've had a few skirmishes with the natives trying to retake this city, but nothing huge yet.

Currently, we live in the 'Building of Operations'. This sucker has four floors and is mostly intact. The first floor is the planning room, where we all argue over the best course of action. Saiyajins live on the second floor. Zarbon and Dodoria get the third floor. And finally, #8 and I grabbed floor number four.

"So… how's the ki shield doing?" #8 asks Zarbon. "Almost ready…" "Good." Vegita replies. Vegita has proved to be quite the little strategist, while all Nappa's proved is that whenever we discuss strategy he should be kicked out.

"How long is this mission expected to last?" I ask. "Eh… I don't really know." Zarbon replies. Well, it's a truthful answer at least. On a side note, Zarbon and I have gotten together quite well during this mission. I like the man, he's competent.

"What's our next target going to be?" I throw out. "It should be the capital, that way the rest of the planet will be weakened with a lack of organization." Vegita answers. "Why not waste the weaker cities, therefore weakening their forces bit by bit?" #8 argues. "We should do a combination of both." Zarbon interjects "We can attack several smaller cities to draw out forces, then regroup and attack the capital." "But how do we know they'll use soldiers from the capital?" I ask.

"We have to do something!" Zarbon says. "If we sit back and do nothing, they can regroup and attack us even stronger than normally." "So, let's just attack smaller cities to keep them on their toes until we can come up with a better plan." I suggest.

"Done!" Zarbon agrees. "But for now we need to work on stabilizing the rest of this base." Zarbon reminds us.

"Well, let's get to work then!" I say. We all get up and prepare for work. Another thing I like, none of this high up official crap. We get down and do the grunt work like everyone else when needed.

"#9! Get that transmitter working while the rest of us set up the machinery!" Zarbon orders. Sigh… one thing that sucks is that I'm practically the only technician here. Some of these people need multiple talents.

I look down at the large mess of wires. Oh joy.

Five hours later…

"Got that transmitter working?" Zarbon asks. "Almost damnit!" I yell back. Just need to connect these wires… there! Man, that was a fucking mess. No use complaining though. "All done Zarbon!" "Good. Start up the shields!" Zarbon commands.

There's a large humming noise and the shields go up. "Now… for the ultimate test…" I mutter. I leap up into the air, go around the shield, and shoot a fairly strong ki blast at the wall. Blocked. Perfect…

That's great… only three more to go now…

Twelve or so hours later…

FINALLY! The damn transmitters are all working and the shields are up! "That's more than enough for today! Everyone's dismissed!" Zarbon tells us all.

"Those skills of yours have come in handy #9, I'm not sure what we'd do without them." "Don't lie, you'd just all go the old fashioned way and leap city to city wasting 'em all." I reply to Zarbon's praise. Zarbon grins "True…".

I walk back to our temporary home. #8 meets with me on the way.

"Hey #9! Heard you have the shields up." She'd been working on reconstructing walls all day. "Yeah. The cool thing is that they can't shoot in, but we can shoot out at them!" #8 grins evilly.

We decide just to walk around the city instead of going to our room. Every now and then, I hear the noise of enemy scouts being shot down. I can see the flashes too, since it turned dark a long while ago. This planet runs on 26 hour day cycles.

After a while, we just sit down in the ruins of a destroyed building.

"We're gonna be here a while…" I mutter for no real reason at all. "Yeah, this is one bitch of a mission." #8 agrees.

I lay down on the rubble and start playing catch with myself using a small piece of concrete. "I wonder how long it'll be before the natives muster up a major counter attack. I know it has to happen some time soon." #8 states. "I don't know. Probably within the next few days though." I reply.

All of a sudden, a question comes to me. I don't know why I thought it, but might as well ask. "Hey, #8, have any idea what I was like before Gero turned me into an android?" I ask. #8 stares at me for a second. "Why do you want to know?" "Just curious. Is there something wrong?" "No… it's just that you've never seemed to care about it up 'till now, that's all." #8 replies.

"Well, I'll tell you, I guess." #8 starts. "I can't tell you much though, it's not like I knew you well or anything." "I know." #8 shrugs. "Basically, I was under orders from Gero to find someone suitable enough for his work. Stamina was what he was looking for. I only listened to Gero because I had no one else to listen to, no matter how much I disagreed with the Doctor. Well, after a while, I found you. I was just spying on several people, to see if they measure up. Stamina definitely seemed to be your strong point. I watched you get in a fight with some idiots…" #8 paused a moment, trying to remember the moment it seems.

"It was rather funny, actually. One guy walked up and socked you in the face. You just shrugged it off like it was nothing, which it did seem to be. The guy got all frustrated and backhanded you across the face. This time you laughed at him. He got so pissed off, that he just started to attack you all out. This time you did fight back. The guy got in a few hits, but it didn't bother you one bit. You pounded his ass in no time. After watching this, all of the other guys just ran off…" #8 smiles.

"That's when I dropped down to retrieve you. From what I saw, you're very similar to who you were before you were turned into an android. Stubborn as hell and had balls, but your frustration showed a tad more easily. I basically told you to come with me. Of course, you just asked why. I said you had no choice, but you kept insisting I answer you. Finally, I got tired of that and just walked forward to get you. You didn't trust me too much. I can tell because you tried to fight me, but I knocked you down with a small ki blast. Then I dragged you off to the secret laboratory. Dr.Gero was there and waiting. Surprisingly, you were still conscious from that ki blast. What happened after that, I'll never forget…" #8 says with a grin.

"You actually had the balls to run up, sock Gero right in the face, and bolt as I check to see that he's alright. I wasn't really checking to see how he was so much as I was just shocked by what you did. Most people would have been shitting their pants by then. I tracked you down quickly though." #8's voice seemed to take a tone of admiration now.

"Even though I had you trapped, you still wanted to know who I was. I told you, and you laughed your ass of at the name and cracked a joke at Gero. Well, it seemed you weren't going quietly, so I shot you through the shoulder. Even though you staggered, you didn't fall. And as I knocked you out, you still glared at me in defiance…" #8 ends, reminiscing.

"Damn, good story #8." I reply after a short while of silence. She grins "Thanks.".

"But you know, you were the one who really got me thinking of rebellion against Gero. I didn't like the place much, but I didn't have much else, you know? Then you came along, and got some thoughts going in my head. Your defiance rubbed off on me. Why should we listen to Gero? Don't we have the right to live our own lives? You got me looking at the bigger picture. Not what I had going now, but what would happen later." #8 goes on.

"You always look ahead, #9. Maybe a bit too much, but it's better than being stuck in the present. What's next? What will happen now? It still doesn't bother me too much about that whole thing with Vegitasei, but you seem to see things I just don't. While I was just shrugging it off as another loss, you took that and looked ahead at what that could mean for us." #8 says.

"Nah, I just think too much #8. When I was thinking of Vegitasei all those years back, it was more like paranoia. Sure, I think of the future, but I do it way too much." I reply.

"It'd be better to be paranoid than to be blind to the possibilities." #8 argues back. I shrug.

"The thing is though, even though at times you would look so far into the future, other times you would seem to shrug it off. You always seem to know what's worth worrying about and what's not." "I just go with what I feel. You do the same thing, it's just that you think the present is more important than the future." I reply to #8.

"Look, that's the way you're meant to be #8. There's a reason why you're a strategist and I'm not. A strategist needs to look a bit into the future, yes, but also needs to keep his or her mind in the present and on task as well. If one looks too far into the future, they will worry too much, try to come up with a plan for all things that could go wrong, and ultimately fuck everything over." I tell #8.

"There aren't always bonuses to looking into the future. Just look at Bardock. He looked too far and it drove him to insanity." I finish.

#8 looks a bit sad for a second. "I never could figure what happened to him." she states. "Neither could I. He could have just lost it, or maybe he really was cursed with seeing the future. We'll never know." "Yeah, you're right." #8 agrees.

We stay there and talk for the rest of the night…

Chapter 30

Huh? Oh yeah, we stayed outside for the night. I guess we fell asleep out here. I get up and stretch. #8 wakes up shortly after and does the same.

"You know, rubble is very uncomfortable, I'll remember to never sleep amongst it again given the choice." I mutter. #8 grins at my misfortune.

"We should head back to the main building." #8 states. We both leave immediately.

"Where were you two?" Zarbon asks. "What does it matter?" I throw back. Zarbon shrugs. "It doesn't. But you're just in time for some breakfast. Interested?" Zarbon asks. Well, we haven't eaten in a while, might as well.

We have some eggs, sausage, and water. Sausage is actually quite rare for a mission like this, but a group of soldiers found a large storage of supplies in the city that were undamaged. So we decided to use them. Luckily, Zarbon is a magnificent cook.

All of a sudden, alarms go off! "DAMNIT!" Zarbon curses loudly. We all rush outside immediately. "What the hell is going on!" Zarbon asks over the radio. "The natives have gathered up a large assault army and are now attacking the base on the west side. They have us surrounded and will be attacking all other sides shortly!" someone replies. Damn…

"Ok. Here's the plan. You" Zarbon points at me " and #8 will go to the North wall. You three" pointing at the Saiyajins "Will guard the West wall. Dodoria and I will take the South wall while squads five and one take the East wall. All other remaining squads, divide up your soldiers as even in possible into four large groups and distribute one to each wall!" Zarbon orders. Everyone agrees and rushes to position.

Within minutes, #8 and I reach the North wall. Shortly after, about thirty soldiers line up at our position.

#8 looks at all of them and starts assigning positions.

The attack begins.

#8 and I stand together on the upper wall and snipe off everyone we can. They find quickly they can't get through MY ki shield! Damned straight!

Hell, this is pretty easy, even though a lot of these guys are around at least 10,000 power level wise. Unfortunately, the shield can only block so much. The stronger ki beams start coming through.

Bad turns to worse as a stray beam hits my precious transmitter. The shield falls completely.

The enemy rushes us and we are soon engaged in a fight for our lives. Twenty soldiers rush at #8 and I. Seems we have a reputation.

I cut one in half, kick another in the throat, punch another's gut, and decapitate a fourth before five others tackle me.

Damn bastards! A fist barely misses my face, and I knee the soldier on top of me in the balls. Hey, when it's kill or be killed, hit 'em where it hurts!

I immediately leap to my feet, slash a native in the chest, and kick another in the stomach.

Seven beams hit me in my left side, blowing away a chunk of my armor. I stagger to the side. Charging up my sword, I leap at the soldiers who shot me and disintegrate them with a powerful ki explosion.

I take a look around me. Our men are dropping like flies. "ZARBON! Can you read me? Zarbon!" I yell into my radio. "I'm here!" Zarbon yells over the sound of fighting. "Is there anybody who can give me some backup?" "Negative! Everyone is fighting all out and no one can spare a single man!" DAMNIT! "Fine. I'm out!"

Damn, this is real bad. I start charging up my Bloody Eraser, my most effective beam to date. Soon as it's done, I fire into the biggest crowd of enemy soldiers. I kill at least fifty soldiers, but more keep pouring in!

I cover for #8 as she starts charging up her beam. After a few minutes of slashing down natives, she fires and kills about forty enemy soldiers. Yet, there are still way more than that. Almost all of our men are gone now.

"DAMNIT! We need backup NOW!" I practically scream into my radio while fending off five soldiers. "We can't spare anyone!" Zarbon yells back. "Well, then you're about to lose the North wall! Almost all of our soldiers are dead here, and #8 and I defiantly can't hold off over a hundred of these natives!" "Hold your position for as long as you can!" Zarbon orders and then cuts off the transmission.

I start throwing out several powerful ki blasts and cut down several more natives while #8 uses her 'machine-gunning' technique to take out a bunch of them.

The wall I'm standing on collapses, and I have to fly into the air.

In the distant background, I hear the sounds of the Saiayjins transforming into their 'Oozaru' form they called it.

"Saiyajins! Split up and help out the rest of the forces as soon as possible!" I hear Zarbon order over the scouter radio.

Great, so we just have to hold off for another five to ten more minutes.

Unfortunately, the way things are going we'd be lucky to hold off for three more minutes!

"ALL REMAINING SOLDIERS! FALL BACK!" I order to everyone under my command. We start falling back while still firing on the opposing forces.

Well, at least their forces are diminishing right now. But we wouldn't be able to hold them all off.

"FWOOSH!" A huge beam flies past us and into the enemy, killing off their entire front line. About time one of them got here. Seems we might stand a chance now.

Since their front line is gone, we have some time to charge up our strongest beams.

By the time the rest of the soldiers got to the wall, #8 and I unleashed our beams while the Saiyajin ape shot another of it's huge beams into the army. I've never seen a more satisfying explosion in my life. The entire army is wasted here. But not at a low cost.

"North wall is clear. Orders?" I ask over the radio. "Hold your position, the rest of the area is under control." Zarbon orders.

Chapter 31

Thirty minutes later…

The opposing armies have been defeated. Now we get to work on the shields again.

"Whew, glad that's over…" I mutter to Zarbon. He looks distressed. "What's wrong?" "I'm not sure if that's all of them… there could be a second wave." "Eh… I sure hope not." I reply.

Only a hour later, the second wave hits. We hadn't even been able to put up a single ki shield!

"INCOMING!" a sentry yells out. Everyone gets into formation.

This time, there's nothing to keep them from just rushing us, so that's exactly what they did. I ended up fighting groups by the dozens. Too many to hold off.

"FALL BACK!" Zarbon orders. We start falling back, but it's to no avail.

I cut down two natives in one slice and kick another through the chest. Five more slam into my back. Damn, I fly upwards and shoot down fifteen soldiers with a 'continuous beam' (When fired, it just keeps going for a long while). Six beams hit me in the gut. My armor is completely torn off now and I have nothing on but a shredded jumpsuit.

Nobody else is doing much better. All of our soldiers have died except #8, Zarbon, Dodoria, Nappa, Radditz, Vegita, Kewie, a few soldiers, and I. That leaves about twelve people against three hundred soldiers.

"RETREAT TO THE HANGAR!" Zarbon orders. We just bolt.

Sadly, the enemy doesn't seem to share our opinion of leaving. They rush at us even more furiously than before.

They attack us like a swarm of locusts on the new year's crop. I cut down several of them, but they keep coming.

They fall from the skies, pour through the walls, rocket from the ground. They're everywhere.

They're the bees in their hive and we just hit it with a stick.

Our retreat is cut off almost immediately. "Zarbon… I hate to be pessimistic, but we're fucked." I tell him morosely. "There's nothing to do but fight it out…" Zarbon says.

"When we're dead, what do we care of their planet? Fuck their planet… fuck it…" I mutter over and over while charging up a Bloody Eraser.

"Uh… #9. You aren't snapping on me… right?" #8 asks.

"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. All I know is, we're dead, and if we're gonna die… FUCK THESE BASTARDS! THEY'RE COMING WITH!" I scream. I throw every ounce of power I have into the Bloody Eraser. Soon as I charge it up to it's fullest, I let loose on the surrounding area.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" #8 screams. "SHHHHHHHHIIIIIIINNNNNNEEEEEEE!" I scream at the enemy.

"GO DAMNIT!" I scream at everyone else while I continue to fuel my beam. They back off, but still don't leave. That is, except #8 who stays at my side.

"DAMNIT #9! What are you doing!" "Buying time and killing off as many of these fuckers as possible." I respond. "You'll die if you do that." "Shut up… I won't die." I mutter back.

The ground starts cracking, and soldiers die. But the majority holds on to dear life. "DAMNED FLEAS!" I yell.

I throw a final large amount of my power, bursting through my beam and making a huge explosion. The area is totally wasted, there's a huge crater, and soldiers have died by the dozen. But even after that, there are still enemies at large. There are just simply too many.

After that beam, I have no ki left. Feh… never ran across this. I guess ki is separate from your physical body. Even though I should feel no fatigue, I'm drained. I've never thrown this much power into a single attack my entire life. All of a sudden, the area seems to darken…

"#9!" Someone near me screams as I plummet to the ground.

Chapter 32

I wake up in some rubble. What happened? Then, all of my memories slam into my mind at full force.

Then… where am I?

I figure it out quickly. I'm on the battlefield, seems I've been given up as dead. Strange enough, I remain oblivious to the sounds of fighting. It's as if it isn't happening. Why this is, I don't know.

I walk around a bit, taking a look at my 'handiwork'. Maybe this is a side effect of excessive ki usage, I don't know or care.

Then I find out why I'm acting so strange. I simply don't care. Why are we fighting? We're dead anyway. It's so much easier just to curl up in a little ball and die…

NO! I shouldn't think like that! I force myself back to reality.

The sounds of battle seem a little less intense than before… That's because it's further off.

Near the Hangar! I fly there at full speed.

I notice Vegita is in his Oozaru form, but even he's having a hard time keeping the enemy at bay. The Hangar… might as well see the inside.

Damn… doesn't look good at all. #8, Zarbon, and Nappa are knocked out, or dead. I don't want to think of the latter possibility.

"Eh? You!" Huh? I spin around quickly. It's just Dodoria.

"I thought you were dead for sure. A shame…" Dodoria jokes with a grin. How can anyone joke now? Then again, it keeps up morale.

"What's happened?" I demand. "We're trying to get out of here right now." Dodoria says briskly.

"Your beam helped us escape…" I hear Radditz say from behind me.

"Really?" I ask. "Yeah, after that happened, all of the enemy seemed unsure of what to do. Seems they lost their balls when you fired that one off. We used that time to escape. We made it here, but the enemy finally caught up. Vegita is holding off the enemy while we load up everyone into their capsules." Radditz explains. "What about Kewie?" "He bolted a while back." Figures.

Well, gee… now I feel all special and important. No need for those feelings now though.

I walk over, pick up #8, and put her in her capsule. She's badly injured. Has a three inch hole in her upper gut, left arm is dislocated, and her right leg twisted.

Dodoria and Radditz load up the rest.

"Ok! We've loaded 'em all up, time to get the hell out!" I yell at the others.

"You guys get in your capsules while I alert Vegita." I order. "Who made you the leader?" Dodoria questions. "The fact that I'm the only one with a plan now and that I can kick your ass. Now go!" I yell.

I run outside. "VEGITA!" The ape cocks his head at me. "We're ready, let's get going!" I yell. Vegita grumbles something and shoots out the 'moon'.

Immediately, we run back to the capsules. Well, seems Dodoria listened after all. "Help me out here!" I order Vegita as I wheel out the capsules.

Soon as we get into a clearing, the capsules take off. "Time to get off ourselves." I mutter. Vegita boards his capsule, and I prepare to do the same when a strong beam hits me in the gut. I lose my balance and topple over.

"Son of a bitch…" I mumble under my breath. Another beam pierces my leg. I leap up and fly to my capsule while firing my own beams at my assailants. Finally, I make it to my capsule and close it up. I set the coordinates and take off…

Chapter 33

I wake up and try to get up. Damnit, my leg is injured. I'd forgotten about that. Someone opens my capsule for me.

And I have no idea who the hell it is. Probably a medical technician. She puts out her hand, I grab it and pull myself out of the capsule. Then I just float up and sit on top of my capsule.

Seems I'm the fourth out. Vegita and Radditz are walking away dragging Nappa behind them.

Damn, I'd been too caught up to notice their power increase. Vegita is 30,000, Nappa is 23,000, and Radditz is 15,000.

"Come on, you need a tank." the female tech who helped me said that. I don't respond, but watch as they pull out #8 from her capsule. Shortly after, I follow to the regeneration tanks.


	5. Chapter 5

PART V: THE PIT THAT IS NAMECK

About two years later…

**Name: #9**

**Power Level: 49,000**

**Rank: Mercenary, Hacker**

**Missions Attempted: 76**

**Missions Completed: 75**

**Missions Failed: 1**

**Success Rate: 98.7**

**New Physical Characteristics: Looks about half a year older. Cut**

**his ponytail short.**

**Name: #8**

**Power Level: 48,750**

**Rank: Mercenary, Strategist**

**Missions Attempted: 76**

**Missions Completed: 75**

**Missions Failed: 1**

**Success Rate: 98.7**

**New Physical Characteristics: Looks about half a year older. Cut **

**hair short.**

**Name: Vegita**

**Power Level: 43,000**

**Rank: Ex-Mercenary, Saiyajin Prince**

**Missions Attempted: 129**

**Missions Completed: 128**

**Missions Failed: 0**

**Success Rate: 99.2**

**New Physical Characteristics: Two years older. Lost tail.**

**Important Events: Lost to Kakarotto on the planet Earth. Turned**

**traitor and is traveling to Nameck in search of Dragonballs.**

**Name: Nappa**

**Status: Dead.**

**Name: Radditz**

**Status: Dead.**

**Name: Freeza**

**Power Level: 150,000 (Over 700,000 hidden)**

**Rank: Leader of Freeza Mercenary Corps**

**Missions Attempted: Confidential**

**Missions Completed: Confidential**

**Missions Failed: Confidential**

**Success Rate: Confidential**

**New Physical Characteristics: None.**

**Name: Dodoria**

**Power Level: 40,000**

**Rank: Mercenary, Freeza's Bodyguard**

**Missions Attempted: Confidential**

**Missions Completed: Confidential**

**Missions Failed: Confidential**

**Success Rate: Confidential**

**New Physical Characteristics: None.**

**Name: Zarbon**

**Power Level: 40,000 (47,000 hidden)**

**Rank: Mercenary, Freeza's Bodyguard**

**Missions Attempted: Confidential**

**Missions Completed: Confidential**

**Missions Failed: Confidential**

**Success Rate: Confidential**

**New Physical Characteristics: None.**

**Name: Kewie**

**Power Level: 21,000**

**Rank: Mercenary**

**Missions Attempted: 153**

**Missions Completed: 141**

**Missions Failed: 12**

**Success Rate: 92.2**

**New Physical Characteristics: None.**

Chapter 34

Um… damn. Things have gotten fucked up over the past two years. After that fateful mission on Welthrox, and our stand off at SchwarzTeufel. We won in the end of that hellish mission, in a sense. Shortly after our failure, Freeza used powerful beams to destroy the planet from orbit.

First, Radditz wants to go off to get his 'baby brother' Kakarotto. That was the last thing that Bardock muttered as he died. Just going off to a low level planet, their power levels are only around 5.

Heh, that place turns out to be Earth. That's fine, I don't care. Then I find out Radditz was killed. At first, I thought it might have been androids, but after being able to retrieve some data on the subject, I found out it was instead Kakarotto, AKA Goku, and 'Piccilo'. And this happened on a 'harmless' planet. Damn, it pisses me off, I liked Radditz too.

Of course, Radditz gave off info on these Dragonballs. Very powerful things indeed.

Vegita and Nappa then go off to Earth, without orders, to retrieve these Dragonballs. Strangely enough, they were beaten by the low level warrior Kakarotto.

Vegita then heads for Nameck. Which is where we're all going to.

Strange, strange universe.

By now, Vegita has been declared as a traitor. Well, shit happens, I guess.

We will arrive on Nameck within fifteen minutes. Time seems to slow down to a crawl as we stand ready. #8 and I stand side by side as part of Freeza's elite guard.

Zarbon, Dodoria, #8, and I make up Freeza's elite guard. He also has several grunts with him too.

The station starts shaking as we enter the atmosphere.

Five minutes later…

"We're here…" Freeza states as he goes out onto Nameck. You're my boss and all, but no shit Sherlock.

"So… where are we going to first, Sir?" I ask. That's one thing I like about Freeza, you can speak whatever you wish so long as you keep a few formalities. And when I mean freedom of speech, I mean you could cuss Freeza out if you like. Of course, nothing guarantees he won't kill you for it, but you could still do it if you wished.

"The village about twenty miles from here." Freeza answers.

And it goes on much like this… Five hours later, we've gathered five Dragonballs. We're now in a village facing it's Elder.

I'm not really paying too much attention, since Freeza's doing the usual bullshit routine. Promise to leave in peace, get Dragonball, kill all inhabitants.

Then, some Nameckan warriors appear. They rank about 5000. Heh, how sad. Even sadder for our grunt soldiers though, who get their asses kicked.

You know, these Namecks look a lot like that Piccilo person.

"Dodoria, why don't you take care of this… inconvenience." Freeza orders Fatty. Yeah, like that will be hard. Fatty goes through his usual routine of acting all cocky.

Man, this is boring. If this is what it's like to be an elite guard, I'm quitting by next week and going back to a normal mercenary. Screw status.

Zarbon seems paranoid about some other people on this planet. I don't pick up anything though. But both Dodoria and Zarbon are paranoid about Vegita's power level. I don't see why, we can take him. So what if he killed Kewie? Big deal.

This Elder interests me though. He has balls. All the other Nameck Elders have caved in. Sure, they stood up for themselves, but they were all gullible and finally agreed to let Freeza have his way. But this one… he seems to have more guts than that. Either that or he's smarter.

The Elder notices me looking at him, he looks right back. "Why are you doing this?" he asks me. How should I answer? Tell him the truth, or give him a bunch of shit? Does it matter?

"It should be obvious, the Dragonballs of course. We want them for personal reasons." I respond. "I know you people will only use them for evil, you cannot have them!" the Elder argues back.

"Know what? I like you. Give up the Dragonballs, and I will guarantee the lives of all the people in this village." I tell him. Or at least, I'll try. We should probably keep some alive anyway, in case we can't get these Dragonballs to work or something.

The Elder stares at me critically. "You… you're not completely like the others." "Oh? How so?" "You aren't as corrupted. Not evil, but not good." the Elder tells me. Nice to know.

"I trust you, but I don't trust this Freeza." the Elder continues. Smart man.

"So… what will it be, old man?" Freeza asks. The Elder looks sickened by Dodoria's handiwork. "No. You cannot have it." "It's a shame then… what may happen to those children…" Freeza continues.

The Elder looks like he's in indecision. He backs up and whispers something to the children. Then he leaps into the air and destroys all the scouters! I was right, that man does have balls. Dodoria takes on the Nameck.

The Elder is smart too. We can't locate the Dragonballs anymore. I don't know why, but #8 and I can't pick up the Dragonballs. Must be something I screwed up with an upgrade.

Dodoria advances on the children after wasting the Elder, and kills one of them. He starts toying with the other. What a waste of lives. And a waste of an intelligent Nameck too.

Out of nowhere some kid rushes forward and kicks Dodoria through a wall. Who is this kid? Is this what Zarbon was worried about?

Some bald midget comes out too. Where the hell did they come from! Shouldn't we have picked them up? They must be able to hide their ki or something.

I start to move towards the intruders. "Wait…" Freeza orders me. I do exactly that. The two assailants grab the Nameck kid and fly off.

"Dodoria!" "Y-Yes, Freeza?" "Chase after them! NOW!" Freeza orders. I get it, a test of Dodoria's abilities. I wonder how many of those Freeza's thrown on me?

"I'm going back to the ship. Zarbon, #8, and #9, come with me." Freeza tells us. We do as ordered.

Chapter 35

Half an hour later…

Still no sign of Dodoria. I wonder what happened? This is a pretty boring mission. Thankfully, I got to leave, but #8 had to stay behind. Actually, Freeza 'wanted' me to leave. I dunno why.

So now I'm just lounging in our room.

The station starts shaking very violently.

"What the hell!" I ask out loud to no one in particular.

I race to the main area. Some walls are blasted down and people are running all over the place.

"IT'S VEGITA!" some guard screams. Really? About time something has happened.

I leave immediately to Freeza's main chamber. That's where the Dragonballs are.

"WHOOSH!" A Dragonball flies out of a hole in Freeza's window. Vegita then flies right out of the window. "VEGITA!" I yell after him. I charge up a ki blast and start to run after him. But something catches my eye. Someone seems to be laying off to my right side. For whatever reason, I turn to see who it is. Probably just some fool guard who got in Vegita's way.

I see who it really is, and freeze in my tracks. Female, black hair cut short, green eyes… "No…" I run over to #8 as fast as possible.

"I'm sorry #9." I hear behind me. Freeza. Whatever… nothing matters right now. I stare into #8's dead face.

"Vegita must have killed her. Do you want some time off?" Freeza asks. Why's he being so nice? Shut the fuck up and leave me in peace.

I grab #8's hand. It's cold… wait… it's cold? Now that I take a closer look, it seems she's been dead for hours. Vegita couldn't have killed her, or else she'd still be warm. Someone's pulling some shit. And I'm that person's fool.

"Yes… Sir… I'd like some time off." I reply. Freeza nods. I pick up #8 and leave.

For what seems hours, I just stare at #8's dead body. Just thinking…

Then I think about my paranoia eighteen years earlier… what if… it seems to be. It fits too perfectly. #8 and I are… were… one of if not 'the' strongest pair of warriors under Freeza's command. And Freeza knew it. So he killed her out of fear of power? But no, then he would of killed me, right?

Questions build in my mind. I have to know for certain. My computer… that's how. If it really was Freeza, it'd be documented in his personal files. I turn on the computer and start searching through everything related to us.

Two hours later…

These are the last two files…

**File #3907**

**#8 and #9 are progressing very well. Almost too well. Their power keeps rising, yet, it doesn't show on any scouter. What if they decided to just leave? I cannot let warriors such as these go. I have to guarantee their loyalty, but how?**

**File #3908**

**I know how to gain the loyalty of #8 and #9 now. Actually, just one of them. When I have one with undying loyalty, why would I want two with questionable loyalty? I will kill off one of them, I think it will be #8 since she is weaker. But who to blame the death on?**

He did… it makes so much sense. It's a brilliant plan. Kill off #8, Vegita comes in and raids the place. Then blame the death on Vegita, and he has my undying loyalty. Not only that, but I'd hunt Vegita down and kill him for sure…

That… that… ASSHOLE! My anger starts rising.

How dare he? He had our oaths, he had our word, he had nineteen years of faithful work. Now to kill off #8 just to be certain I'd work for him! THAT BASTARD! HE WILL PAY!

I slam my fist into the computer terminal, destroying it.

DAMNIT!

I feel like destroying this planet. I want to kill everyone, especially that manipulative little fuck Freeza.

No… I have to control myself. I'll be certain to die if I do that, and I'd never have revenge…

Side with Vegita… of course. If he gets the Dragonballs, Freeza will be screwed out of his wish. Not only that, but I can steal Vegita's wish and overcome Freeza. It… it might work. I grab a scouter.

I get on a new suit of armor and glance at #8's dead form one last time. A surge of anger and sadness goes through me. "Freeza will pay…" I mutter.

Chapter 36

"Where do you think you're going? No one can leave the ship!" Some guard yells out at me. Like I give a fuck. I blast his ass to oblivion. Nobody's stopping me.

I take off towards Vegita's location. "What do you want?" Vegita asks when I land without looking behind him. He seems to have been through hell, but his power level proves it. 46,000…

"I want to side with you." I say. Vegita glances at me. "And why might you want that?" Vegita inquires. "Because Freeza fucked me over. I want him to pay." Silence…

Vegita glares at me critically. "I don't need your help, baka." Vegita finally says. "So there you are…" I hear behind me, we both whirl around.

Zarbon. Vegita scowls even more so than usual. "Why are you here, #9? I heard you killed a guard and left." Zarbon directs to me. "I just want to hear from you, Zarbon, what really happened to #8? Don't bullshit me, I already know, I just want you to confirm it." Zarbon looks rather grim. "What do you 'know'?" "That it was Freeza." "You're good… and right. It was Freeza. But casualties are expected, #9. Are you striking a deal with Vegita? Don't be so foolish, you'll never win. Come back to us, forget what happened, and Freeza will overlook your treachery." offers Zarbon.

"HAHAHA!" I laugh hysterically "Do you take me for a fool? And do you also think I would forget #8 so easily? A person I've spent my life with, a person I loved, my comrade. You are a fool if you think that, Zarbon." Zarbon smiles without humor. "Freeza backstabbed me!" I continue "I will never forgive that! He had our oaths, he had nineteen years of service, he had nothing to fear! Why did he do that? WHY! I will have my revenge…" "You'll have to get through me first." Zarbon interrupts. "AND NO ONE WILL STOP ME!" I scream. My power rises to 51,000 and I rush at Zarbon.

I yank out my sword and slice into Zarbon's chest. He staggers. But that's not enough… if he will be in my way, he will die. I swing at him again, and cut off the left arm he tried to block with. "ARGH!" Zarbon screams, but I'm not finished. Zarbon dodges as I stab at him, but I hit his right shoulder. "Fine… have it your way…" Zarbon mutters as he transforms.

Zarbon's injuries don't heal, though. Now he's at 47,000, which is over what Vegita can take. "DIE!" I scream as I leap forward again, my sword flies at him, but hits thin air. A fist swings past me as I leap over Zarbon and slash his back open. "As I said, no one, will stop me. Including you, my former comrade…" I say sadly. "You may beat me, but you will never beat Freeza…" Zarbon replies, I stab him in the gut. "I don't care about my chances, Freeza WILL die by my hand." I stab him in the chest. Zarbon is now gurgling blood. "Heh… you… will never… know… not… him…" Zarbon spits at me before he falls over, dead. Whatever.

My power doesn't go down, I'm too wired.

But… I just killed my friend. But that is no matter, he was in my way of revenge, and had known of what had happened. He would have done the same thing.

I look back at Vegita, who is looking at me. "Reconsidering my offer?" I ask. "Fine. You may accompany me." Vegita responds tersely. I grin. "Good, how many of the Dragonballs do you have?" I ask Vegita. "Five from Freeza's ship, and one I got myself and hid." he informs me. "I'll retrieve the Dragonball I hid while you get the last Dragonball." Vegita orders. "Good enough then." I respond. Vegita takes off, as if he knows where to go without as scouter. Ah well, I've heard of being able to 'sense' ki. Like it matters to me.

Chapter 37

I quickly locate the final Dragonball and take off in search of it. Getting there was of little mention.

"W-Who are you?" some blue haired girl asks me. "It doesn't matter, just hand over the Dragonball." I respond. "YOU! You were with Freeza!" I hear. That bald midget from earlier points at me. "Correct, now hand over the Dragonball or die." I tell them. I'm not exactly in the mood for formalities. Besides, the midget is only at about 20,000.

"Never. You don't even have any ki." the bald guy responds and throws a blast at me, which I didn't expect. I block it, but not before it destroys my scouter. Damn. "Never go by appearance." I say. The bald man gulps. "H-Here…" he hands over the Dragonball.

"Thank you." I leave immediately. Not too long after, I meet up with Vegita. A very angry and bloodshot eyed Vegita. He looked like he was going to burst several veins.

"Uh… Vegita?" "THAT BOY WILL PAY!" Vegita screams. Okay… I take it things didn't go well. "Where's your Dragonball?" "That boy took it!" "Is he in purple clothing?" "Yes." Vegita responds. He was the one who attacked Fatty. I locate the boy quickly and we both take off. No mere boy will ruin my revenge!

We end up in a high speed chase after this boy. Finally, the bald midget appears once again, attempting to stop us. Vegita bats him away and we move on to the Namck building on top of a pillar of stone.

"What do you want?" a tall Nameck asks us. "Out of my way!" Vegita orders. "AAAHHH!" someone yells from within the building. Then the boy in purple steps out. He ranks at about 26,000. Still nothing.

"Ha! We can take you now, Vegita!" the midget speaks. "Oh really?" I speak up. The midget looks surprised. "You again!" "Now, hand it over!" I demand. "NO! We didn't come all this way to lose our only wish!" Krillin says. "Only wish? There are three wishes you know." the tall Nameck tells us. "HUH!" we all turn to the Nameck. "That's right. You get three wishes out of the Dragonballs." Perfect.

"Wait… what's that?" Vegita looks up into the sky. "It's… daddy! Isn't it?" the boy exclaims, seeming a bit unsure. "I don't know who this daddy is, but it's powerful." I mutter. Wait… that's not one person… that's five! I get readings of 120,000, 75,000, 30,000, 30,000, and 15,000. No… he didn't…

"It's not Kakarott! It's the Ginyu Force!" Vegita exclaims. So it is… so it is. "The who?" Midget explains. "You mean it's not daddy, Krillin?" the boy asks. Apparently, Midget is Krillin. "No Gohan, they're too evil to be Goku." Krillin responds.

"Quickly! Give me the Dragonballs now!" Vegita orders. "Why should we?" Krillin asks. "Because we're all screwed if you don't!" I argue. "The only way we will beat the Ginyu Force is if we work together and also use these Dragonballs to increase power." I continue. "But what about Gohan?" Krillin points at the boy. "He may have power, but he lacks the skill!" Vegita aruges. "We have no time!" I exclaim "We need to get going, NOW!" "… Alright." Krillin reluctantly agrees.

We all rush to get the last Dragonball. The blue haired girl has it. "Bulma! Give me the Dragonball!" Krillin yells at her. "THERE YOU ARE! After leaving me here all alo-… WHA!" she nearly falls over as she sees Vegita and I. "No time to explain." Krillin says as he grabs the Dragonball. "Let's go." we all take off to Vegita's stash.

As soon as we get there, Vegita and I walk towards the last five Dragonballs, but I notice Krillin and Gohan don't move. We turn around. "What's taking you?" Vegita asks harshly. "We don't trust you Vegita." Gohan says. "There's no time for this!" Vegita exclaims. "Shit…" I mutter as I cover my face with my hand.

"WHOOSH!" Huh! The Ginyu Force lands behind us and the remaining Dragonballs.

"There you are, Vegita and #9. You've been causing Freeza some trouble." Captain Ginyu says. "Fuck Freeza." I spit at him. Vegita grabs my Dragonball, winds up, and flings it as far as he can into the ocean. But Burter catches it. Damn he's fast, luckily he seems to be more speed than power, but it may be hard to hit him. "KRILLIN! DESTROY IT!" Vegita screams. Krillin looks undecided, but then brings his fist down upon the Dragonball. All of a sudden, it disappears and Guldo is holding the sphere. "So… the rumors are true." Vegita murmurs. Guldo grins. Ah… the rumors of stopping time.

"I'll take care of Vegita while you guys deal with the rest." Ginyu orders. What, am I not good enough? "Aww…" the rest of the team complains. "Oh fine, I'll take the Dragonballs back to Freeza while you guys do that rock scissors paper thing." "YAY!" the team exclaims.

Ginyu leaves. "Rock, paper, scissors! Rock, paper, scissors! Rock…" the team chants. What… the… fuck?

"We're gonna be killed by a bunch of idiots…" Gohan mutters. That we will be, kid. "I WIN!" Recoom exclaims. "I get Vegita and #9!" "Aw… damn." the rest of the team mutters, except for Guldo. "I get you little twerps!" Guldo says while pointing at Krillin and Gohan. I grin, time freeze or not, he doesn't stand a chance. But somehow, Krillin and Gohan are keeping their powers low, and Vegita does the same. Curious.

Then Guldo fights Krillin and Gohan. It's a pitiful fight, really. Gohan and Krillin tear it up, double teaming Guldo and attacking from both sides. Only Guldo's time freeze saves him. Heh, that fool, trying to hide behind that rock. Gohan and Krillin sense him and attack. Seems they can sense power too.

All of a sudden, the tables turn as Guldo uses his ESP to freeze Gohan and Krillin in mid air. "Heh, heh, heh." Guldo uses his powers to pull out a tree from the ground and sharpen it into a spike. "HEY! Guldo! Hurry up, will ya!" Recoom yells. "Yeah, yeah." Guldo replies.

Damn, even though I wouldn't want to bring the entire team upon us, it'd hurt a lot more to lose two fighters. Everyone counts in this battle. I lift up my hand and start charging for a beam, but Vegita beats me to it by decapitating Guldo.

Blood sprays all over Vegita's glove and arm as Guldo's head drops to the ground. Guldo's head talks to Vegita "You… you play dirty, Vegita. This is… a game between me and them…" "That's what you say! This is war, I don't care!" Vegita responds.

"I fight Vegita!" I hear Recoom yell out. I hadn't been paying much attention to the mindless dialogue between the other team members. "Hell starts now…" Vegita says.

Chapter 38

"The other two are ours!" Jaice yells to Recoom. "Who…" Krillin starts "… do they take us for?" Vegita finishes. Then Recoom does a silly set of stances.

Vegita, who could care less about looking fancy, just starts charging up to full power. A wind storm starts, blowing away Krillin and Gohan. It doesn't bother me though, I'm used to these levels of power. Vegita then dashes forward and socks Recoom in the face making him fly off. But Vegita isn't finished. He then rockets past Recoom, hits him with an overhead smash, lands feet first into Recoom's gut, grabs Recooms leg and flings him into hill, and then finishes with a powerful ki beam.

"GET DOWN!" Krillin screams. Why? The results are spectacular. But how'd he do it? Vegita's only at 46,000 while Recoom is at 75,000!

"Incredible! He won in a second!" Gohan exclaims. "Vegita, what power…" Krillin mutters.

No… there's something wrong… He's not dead! Vegita notices too. "I feel him! Alive… he's alive!" Gohan says downcast. Krillin stares in disbelief "No… impossible…" but it's true.

"Hello!" Recoom greets us. While his armor has been disintegrated, he's seemingly taken no actual damage from that barrage of attacks.

"RECOOM… KICK!" Recoom dashes forward and kicks Vegita in the face. Vegita flies back but bounces off of a rock. He then throws in a barrage of kicks and punches, but it's all blocked. "Good! Very good! You're better than I thought, my little Vegita!" Recoom elbows Vegita in the neck making him fly to the ground. Vegita hits hard and Recoom tries to punch Vegita, but he leaps out of the way.

Then an aerial chase commences. Recoom misses a few times, and Vegita throws a beam at him. But it misses, Recoom appears in front of Vegita, and slams him into the nearby ocean.

Still, Vegita is not beaten and he flies out of the water, hitting Recoom right in the gut. Recoom seems hurt for a second, but then smiles and grabs Vegita. Damn. Recoom pile drives Vegita into the ground and pulls him out. "Heh heh. You ok? Dead already?" Recoom questions. Not quite, Vegita then ki blasts Recoom right in the face making him fly back and drop Vegita. Vegita lands with a loud thump.

"Still…" Gohan mutters. "Vegita won't give up easy. He'll play this to the end." I respond. "I'm next." I tell them.

Recoom starts to shoot a beam out of his mouth towards Vegita, but I appear in front of him and uppercut him right in the jaw, closing his mouth.

"Very good! You made me close my mouth. My teeth… you'll pay for that." Recoom says. Man, I am dead.

Recoom punches me in the face and I fly backwards. A kick passes just past my face and I blast Recoom in the gut. But it has no effect. I get kicked in the head and slide across the ground. Recoom swings at me, but I jump up as fast as I hit and kick him in the face. I get backhanded right in the chest and I fly into a small hill.

My ki forces the hill to explode and I draw my sword. "Ooh! He wants to play with toys!" Recoom exclaims. This is more than a fucking toy moron…

I charge up and leap at the damn monster. Even though my blade is super charged with my power, Recoom blocks all of my swings and is unaffected. He then grabs my arm and slams me to the ground. My eye beams slam into his throat, choking him for a short second.

Bouncing to my feet, I charge up a beam into my left hand, place it between his eyes, and fire. Recoom's head arches back and he skids on the ground. Then he just gets up as if it were nothing. I don't understand how he didn't get whiplash out of that… But I was expecting that and have been charging up my Bloody Eraser. "Recoom… PUNCH!" Recoom flies right at me and I fire my beam.

He is engulfed immediately and I pour more power into the attack. I leap into the air, redirecting the beam to the ground. Recoom slams into the dirt, pushed by the beam.

"AAHHHHHHHH!" I scream as I pour yet more power into the beam. Finally, I have to stop or risk shutting down like I did at Welthrox.

Recoom gets up, looking like an extra crispy chicken. "Very good! But now I have to stop our fun! Good night!" Recoom says rather cheerfully. Why do morons like this get all the power?

Before I can do anything, Recoom appears before me and punches me in the gut. I can almost feel his knuckles touching my spine. He then grabs my leg and uses it to slam me into the ground, twisting it horribly.

There's a good side and a bad side to my strong endoskeleton. The good side is that it is almost impossible to damage it. The bad side is that if any limb gets twisted, like my leg, then instead of the skeleton giving, my muscles just get ripped to shreds.

I glare at Recoom. He swings again and I try to dodge, but I'm too slow. I take the hit right in the lower chest and his fist goes deep. Even though I feel no pain, I still can be affected by major injuries. And this shows itself as my vision fades in and out. I take one more hit to the face before the darkness envelops me.

Chapter 39

I wake up later in a pathetic cracked shell of armor, but still remain in various stages of consciousness. Which makes it hard to follow the fight. After I fell, Krillin and Gohan jumped in on the action. Krillin was taken down instantly, and from what I gather, Recoom is toying with Gohan.

Gohan's in pretty bad condition. From what I can make out, he's pretty bloody, broken arm, broken ribs, and his humerus is broken, putting him into shock.

All of a sudden, the clouds around my mind deteriorate just enough for me to notice someone with a very high potential ki is heading this way.

Then… an orange clothed and tailless Bardock lands? I didn't know androids could become delirious…

"Kakarotto…" Vegita mutters. Isn't Kakarotto Bardock's son?

Kakarotto grabs Gohan before he was finished by Recoom. I'm really having trouble following this…

He then tosses feeds two beans to Gohan and Krillin. They talk, and Kakarotto tosses a bean to Vegita and I each.

I hold up the bean weakly and stare at it skeptically. Kakarotto nods at me, and I pop it in my mouth. Nothing to lose at this point.

All of a sudden, I'm restored! I start working properly again. My vision is back and my leg is fixed as well as all internal damage. I don't know what the hell I just ate, but it's some kick ass shit!

"DADDY!" Gohan yells. Kakarotto's a father? With who? "Goku!" Krillin yells. So this man is 'Goku' as well? Things keep getting stranger. But no time for that.

But our power levels have increased by several points. Vegita is at 60,000 and I'm at 63,000! I hadn't even realized I was working that hard! Gohan is at 52,000 while Krillin is at 30,000. While this Kakarotto has a max of about 180,000!

So amazed I am at this new development, I don't hear some of the dialogue between Kakarotto and the others. But I listen in shortly after I regain my senses.

Vegita seems to be really surprised while Recoom and Kakarotto talk. "Stop your nonsense! You're going to stop being such a smart ass soon!" Reccom states. Kakarotto grins. "Fine! Are you ready? RECOOM! MACH! ATTACK!" and with that, Recoom leaps at Kakarotto. But Kakarotto just disappears and reappears right behind Burter and Jaice! Kakarotto tells them to leave. There's some more meaningless talking.

"Fine! I'll show you my specialty. I have to warn you that it's useless to run away." Recoom states. "I'm going to destroy everything for kilometers around! I'm going to send all four of you to hell at the same time! RECOOM! ULTRA! COMBAT!" Recoom starts. But Kakarott leaps forward and elbows him in the gut. Recoom topples over.

Everyone is in awe. Can't they read his power? Or can they not get around the fact he's masking it.

Burter and Jaice are undaunted. "Goku seems really sure of himself." Krillin states. "Of course." I respond. Gohan and Krillin both look at me. "Can't you read his power?" I ask. "No… he's hiding his full power." "Heh, well, just so you know, he's WAY more powerful than the rest of these Ginyu freaks." I tell them. "H-He is?" Gohan asks. "Yeah. But he's only giving out a reading of about 5000, which is pretty weak. In reality, he's about 180,000. Way above and beyond any of the Ginyu Force members. And way beyond any of us. We're way out of his league." I state. "Woah…" Krillin mutters in awe.

I almost break out laughing as Burter and Jeice unsuccessfully try to hurt Kakarotto, but instead Kakarotto toys with them a while. Then he beats Burter with ease.

Yet… I've noticed, he hasn't actually killed any of them. Recoom and Burter, while still injured, are still alive as well. Foolish, they could recover and attack us later.

Vegita leaps in the air and crushes Burter's skull while I walk over and ki blast Recoom in the face, finishing them both. "Vegita? What are you-" "Your naivete makes me want to vomit." Vegita interjects. "Why did you let the other leave? With that power you could have easily taken him out. You'll never be a Super Saiyajin." Vegita states. Super Saiyajin? Isn't that some Saiyajin tale? About a Saiyajin who every 1000 years gains an ultimate power?

"Vegita's right. You should have killed them all." I say as I walk to Kakarotto. He stares at me. "They could have recovered and attacked us later. Also Jeice will undoubtedly inform Captain Ginyu. Your compassion only endangers." I state.

"Freeza's probably used the Dragonballs for immortality. You have a chance, just so long as you stay away from him." Vegita tells us all.

"No, I don't think he got his wish." Krillin states. Vegita, Kakarotto, and I stare at him. "How do you know?" I ask.

"If the Dragonballs here work like ours…" Krillin explains "the sky would go black when Shenlon appears. So…" "You mean someone appears when you use them?" Vegita interjects.

"AH! I know! They don't know the spell! He probably thinks it's enough to just have the Dragonballs! We still have a chance!" Kakarotto exclaims. "Spell? There is one?" Vegita says. We're both dumbfounded.

"I hope we can get those Dragonballs." Krillin states. "Vegita? You should know." Kakarotto says. "You don't want to fight Freeza?" "We want to resurrect our friends that you killed first." Kakarotto answers.

"Feh. Resurrections will do no good if they're killed again." I tell them all. "Let me have my wish instead!" Vegita orders. "Are you kidding? You'll be just like Freeza!" Krillin argues.

"Eh?" I just noticed two powers far off. "Ginyu and Jeice." I state. "Huh?" Kakarott asks. "The rest of the Ginyu Force. They're coming this way." I clarify. "Won't be so easy this time." Vegita states. "Where's Freeza?" I ask as I search. "I feel a great power over there. Must be him." Kakarott points Northward. "CRAP! That's Saichoro's place!" Krillin exclaims. "Who?" I ask. "The creator of the Dragonballs! If he dies, the Dragonballs won't work!" Gohan explains.

Ginyu and Jaice land in front of us. "Krillin, Gohan! Go to Saichoro and get him out of there!" I order. "Why should we listen to you?" Krillin counters. "Because if he dies, we can't do a damn thing! NOW GO!" I yell. Kakarotto nods at them and they leave.

"Vegita and you." Kakarotto says, nodding at me. "Take the other one. You should be a lot stronger Vegita." Vegita grins. "You found out my secret." I grin lightly too. "Let's go." Kakarotto says. "Heh." Vegita glances at Kakarotto and flies off. "SO LONG KAKAROTTO!" "VEGITA!" Kakarotto screams. "Kakarotto, I can see your true power. You need no help. Vegita and I have more pressing matters." I explain and take off as well.

Chapter 40

Vegita and I land in front of Freeza's space station. "Good, Freeza's out." Vegita states. "Then let's use this to our advantage." I respond.

We search the ship but can't find the Dragonballs. "Maybe they're hidden?" I say. "Perhaps." Vegita responds as he goes towards the armory.

"Feh! Only old models my size!" Vegita states. "HA! I've got even older! Remember Bardock's armor?" I ask as I pull out a black plated suit of armor. "It'll do though." I say as I throw on the torso piece.

"Huh?" Vegita looks out the window. Krillin and Gohan have landed outside with some small Nameckan kid. They talk and start digging into the ground. Vegita and I sneak out and watch.

"Here they are! All seven!" Krillin exclaims. "COME FORTH SHENLON! GRANT US OUR WISH!" Krillin yells out. Then… nothing happens? "He's not coming? Why?" Krillin is bewildered. Ugh… Huh? Two kis?

"Someone's coming! It's probably Ginyu and Jaice!" Krillin states. "Daddy's dead?" Gohan asks innocently. No way Ginyu could have won… unless. "They're evil!" Krillin states. They all hide. Ginyu did… Kakarotto and Jaice land. Or is it Ginyu and Jaice?

"GOKU! Haha! You scared me! I thought it was Ginyu!" Krillin yells out. Fool. "I didn't know you killed him and convinced Jaice!" "You're the one who found the Dragonballs? How?" "With the Dragon Radar of course!" Krillin responds. The Nameckan decides to keep hiding.

"So you got your wish?" Ginyu asks. "No. The spell's probably different." Krillin tells him. "So… it didn't work…" "You're weird. You're not acting like yourself and you're wearing a scouter." "Wanna know why?" Ginyu asks. "KRILLIN! THAT'S NOT MY DAD!" Gohan screams. He has a gift for the obvious.

Ginyu hits Krillin with a right hook. "There's another one. He must have hidden his ki." Jaice states. "Goku?" "We exchanged bodies." Ginyu explains. "I AM CAPTAIN GINYU!" Ginyu yells out.

"I'm gonna try out my new body. With a power of 180,000!" Shit… "Captain Ginyu! He's here!" Jaice jerks a thumb toward's Ginyu's floating body. Must by Kakarotto. "How did you get here?" Ginyu asks. "That's not me! We exchanged bodies!" Kakarotto yells at Krillin and Gohan. "Really?" "That's my daddy?" they're both amazed.

"Ha! You're all finished!" Ginyu states. "NO! You aren't used to my body yet! You can't do it!" Kakarotto yells back. "Just watch…" and Ginyu powers up.

And keeps going… to 23,000? There's something wrong. Kakarotto is right, he can't achieve full power. Krillin smacks Ginyu in the back of his skull. "We can win!" Krillin exclaims. "What are you doing? Fight Jaice!" Ginyu orders. "Hey, I'm your man…" Vegita appears right behind Jaice. They fight and I leap from my hiding spot.

"We have to pound Ginyu! Before he can figure out how to work his new body!" I yell at them all. "But wh-?" Gohan starts. "His that way for good! There's nothing we can do!" I argue. Then I leap forward and kick Ginyu in the head. "Ugh!" Ginyu flies back. I grab his arm and slam him into the ground. Then I stomp on his face and give him a ki blast in the stomach. I toy with him a while, then finally knock him to the ground. My power level increases just a little to 53,000. Only from the constant exercise I got from playing with him.

I kneel down, putting my right knee into his back, grab his throat with a headlock, and pull back. "Switch now, or you die…" I tell him. "Never…" I pull back harder. "I say switch damn you…" he starts struggling.

"OUT OF THE WAY!" I hear way above me. Vegita's returned from his fight with Jaice. He's now at 55,000. I leap back and Vegita rockets downward. All of a sudden, Ginyu smiles.

Shit… "VEGITA!" Kakarotto screams and leaps towards Ginyu. "CHANGE!" Ginyu yells out at the top of his lungs. A beam flies out of his mouth. Kakarotto hits the beam, and then drops to the ground.

"U-ugh…" Ginyu's body squirms. "NO!" It exclaims. "YAHOO!" Kakarotto's body leaps up. I'd say they're back to normal.

"Now you die Ginyu." I say to him as I pull out my sword and leap forward. While much stronger than me, he's severly weakened. We're almost equally matched. Almost…

He blocks my sword slash but gets kicked in his wound. "Ooof!" I slash him in his right arm right down his biceps. He punches me in the face with his other arm but I knee him in the gut. Ginyu attempts to kick me in the head, but I grab his leg and use it to slam him into the ground. While rising, he shoots a beam at me which I bat away. I then stab him in the stomach, disemboweling him… he glares at me.

"CHANGE!" NO! Krillin kicks a frog, which gets in the way of the beam. Now he's in the body of a frog and can't talk. Talk about a bad way to go out in battle…

Kakarotto is still out of it too. We drag him into a regeneration tank and then go back outside. We also get Krillin and Gohan some armor. Krillin and Gohan use the Nameck to make a wish. I couldn't understand any of what the huge dragon and the kid were saying.

"What's that?" Krillin exclaims. Oh no… I just picked up Freeza coming this way. And we only got one wish. Whatever it was.

"Get ready. Hell has just begun…" I tell them all. Freeza lands in front of us. "If we work together, we can beat him!" Vegita says. "Oh! I must have misheard!" Freeza exclaims.

"Actually, Vegita, we stand no chance." I say. He looks at me. "He's actually much, MUCH more powerful than this. But if we work together, maybe we can kill him before he powers up." Krillin and Gohan look unsure. "YOU'VE PISSED ME OFF!" Freeza screams and he leaps at Vegita. He blocks the attack, and grabs Freeza's arms when he punches. I leap in and kick Freeza right in the back of the head and pull out my sword. Freeza backhands me into a hill. I leap out and stab Freeza in the shoulder, but the blade never penetrates the skin. Vegita is still holding on to Freeza. I charge up my ki and shoot a beam through my sword blade. Freeza buckles, and then leaps up into the air, escaping Vegita. Yet, Freeza's only using a fraction of his power. We have to work quickly.

"Why did you defect?" Freeza asks me. "You killed #8." "Oh, that's all. HA! You weakling, controlled by your emotions so easily!" Freeza mocks me. "DAMN YOU FREEZA!" I scream and my power increases to 62,000. I'm VERY pissed. Freeza dodges as I swing at him. As he moves, I twist my body and kick at his head. Freeza just grabs my by my ankle and slams me to the ground. "DIE!" I leap at him again. This continues, but I am fueled by my rage. I shoot a beam, he bats it away. I punch, he blocks. Yet, I fight on, and my power increases dramastically. 65,000, 67,000, 70,000, 75,000… all the way to 120,000. Vegita joins in too, and he gets to 115,000. "SHI-NE!" I scream. "Show us your true power Freeza!" Vegita yells out.

"Are you that eager to die? Very well then!" Freeza tells us.

Chapter 41

Vegita, you fool. Freeza has transformed to a powerful, large, monster. He no longer looks like the weakling he once was. But he's only at 300,000. Still a fraction of his power. But enough to beat us!

"My power has gone to at least over 1,000,000!" Freeza states. "He's bluffing on that! But he's still strong!" I tell the others. "Very good #9!" Freeza makes the ground below us explode and we all go flying back.

"Which one of you should I send to hell first? …I've decided!" Freeza then leaps forward and impales Krillin on one of his horns.

"Damn he's fast!" I exclaim. "KRILLIN!" Gohan screams.

Freeza casually flings Krillin off of his horn.

"Were you going to help him?" Freeza directs to Gohan "Pointless. He'll die soon." "Get out of my way!" "Eh?" "GET OUT OF MY WAY!" Gohan screams as he kicks Freeza in the head. He then uppercuts Freeza and punches him repeatedly in the gut. Gohan's energy spikes up to 200,000! "WHAT THE!" I exclaim. Gohan kicks Freeza away and then pounds him into the ground with several beams. Gohan then levels out at 60,000. SHIT! What the hell is up with that kid!

After the smoke clears, Freeza comes back towards us. "That hurt… slightly. But all you've gained is my anger!" "Damn! We've underestimated him!" Vegita says.

Freeza floats up towards Gohan. "IDIOT! GET AWAY!" Vegita screams. Freeza smacks Gohan on the side of his head, slamming him down to the ground. "Oh no… the fun hasn't started yet." Freeza says.

Vegita blasts Freeza with a beam, but it has no effect. "DAMN THIS ALL TO HELL!" I scream and charge up my Bloody Eraser. "Just wait #9, you'll have your turn." Freeza tells me. "YOU CAN TAKE THAT TURN AND SHOVE IT UP YOUR ASS!" I yell and fire my Bloody Eraser at full power.

At first Freeza seems uninterested. But as the beam closes in, Freeza notices the power in it. It hits him head on. "AAHHHHHHH!" I scream out. But Freeza still stands, blocking the beam. With a strong shove, the beam flies off to the side. But that's why I didn't throw ALL I had into it. I dash at Freeza, charge up my sword, and shoot a beam right into Freeza's face.

"Was that supposed to-" Freeza is cut off as I hit him in the face with the handle of my sword. Freeza turns his head back at me. "Very good, you keep getting better and better #9. Why didn't you do this well when we sparred?" Freeza asks as he punches me in the face and flings me to the ground.

"Son of a bitch…" I mutter. Gohan gets back up and tries to hit Freeza, but not one attack lands. Freeza kneeks Gohan in the stomach and drops him to the ground. Gohan recovers and flies away, but Freeza intercepts and hits him back on the ground again.

"This is enough. Die." Freeza says plainly. Out of nowhere, a disc shaped beam cuts Freeza's tail off. "What!" Freaza screams out. Krillin stands on a small hill, completely healed and at 50,000. Huh? "What? You're still alive?" "KEINZAN!" Krillin shouts and he fires a bunch of those discs at Freeza. They then shoot into the air.

"TAIYOU KEN!" and a bright light shoots out from Krillin and blinds Freeza.

I notice out of the corner of my eye, the small Nameck HEALING Gohan. "ATTACK NOW!" Krillin screams. Very sound idea. I charge up and shoot a crescent beam at Freeza, which hits and injures him only slightly.

Gohan is healed and we all fly up into the air. Freeza then recovers and seems confused. Must be that Gohan is healed. Or his new power of 100,000.

"Lucks started to turn our way!" Vegita exclaims. "Impossible! He was nearly dead too!" Freeza is in disbelief. "What the hell is that?" I yell out as I notice another power streaking our way. A tall Nameck wearing purple clothing, a white cape, and a white turban appears. "PICCILO!" Gohan yells out happily. "Sorry to keep you waiting." Piccilo says. Shit he's powerful. 350,000.

Chapter 42

"Is that Freeza?" Piccilo asks. "Yeah." Krillin replies. "I wondered what you wished for, but you only brought back that piece of trash!" Vegita says angerly. "You're after Freeza." Piccilo retorts. "So there was a Nameck left! But this one's different…" Freeza muses. Indeed he is. This Piccilo doesn't seem as peaceful as the other Namecks. Actually, he seems just the opposite of the other Namecks.

"I'll take care of this trash." Piccilo says, looking at Freeza. Damn… "Get out of here Dende!" Piccilo says to the smaller Nameck. He runs off.

Piccilo then leaps at Freeza and socks him right in the jaw. Freeza gets knocked backwards, but Piccilo follows and tries to smack him down into the ground. We have a chance… Freeza leaps out of the way and kicks Piccilo right in the head.Piccilo bounces back but is hit by Freeza's tail, but receives a head butt in the stomach in return. Freeza fires a beam but it's deflected by Piccilo. Piccilo fires his own beam which Freeza hastily blocks. "D-damn you." Freeza stutters.

Freeza floats over to Piccilo. "Here's to you." Freeza then elbows Piccilo in the face and slams him into the ground. Piccilo jumps from the ground, dodging Freeza's attack, and Freeza follows. Piccilo can't dodge the next attack and lands on the ground.

Casually, Piccilo gets up and tosses off his cape and turban, making his power rise to full. "I've been holding back too." Freeza looks surprised. All of a sudden, he starts laughing hysterically. Oh shit…

"You think this is my true power? Watch, as I transform again!" Freeza states. "ATTACK NOW!" I scream. But he doesn't listen. And I'm too far away to do anything.

Freeza grows some spikes and his forehead enlarges. "Sorry for the wait. Now we can begin round two!" Freeza says. He's now at 600,000. Freeza then dashes at Piccilo, but he flies out of the way. Freeza follows. "If strength is your specialty, speed is mine! You'll never catch me!" Piccilo yells out. But alas, Freeza is actually way ahead of Piccilo. "W-what?" Freeza points at Piccilo's leg, and then a hole appears in it! An invisible beam! But those are weak! Freeza then starts riddling Piccilo with holes.

Gohan shoots after Freeza, and Krillin starts to do the same. But Vegita holds Krillin back. "Hit me so that I'm almost dead!" Vegita orders. "Wha?" Krillin responds. What's he planning? Then it clicks together. When a Saiyajin comes back from near death, their power increases.

"DIE!" Gohan screams as his power increases again. I don't even bother with the number. "Do it Krillin." I say. "Ok… if you insist." Krillin charges up a beam.

While Vegita does that, I'm going to try my hand at Freeza. While he may be much stronger, I get stronger the longer I fight.

"HA!" I kick Freeza in the head. He doesn't even bother blocking my attacks. "Huh?" I punch him in the face. "You…" I knee him in the gut. "This is amusing…" I shoot out a flurry of punches and kicks to his torso. "But sad…" I pull out my sword and cut across his chest, barely even scratching it "Will you ever get it?" I kick him in the face. My power rises. 150,000. I leap back at Freeza and attack again.

Punch to the head. 150,500.

Kick in the gut. 152,000.

Slash his arm. 152,750.

Block an attack. 160,000.

And I continue my suicide attack. A punch, stab, kick. Freeza laughs at my attempts, but my power rises still. "You'll never avenge #8. You're a weak fool. And so was she…" this angers me and my power rockets to 300,000. "DIE!" I stab him with my full strength. This time, I do some damage. Blood drips from the small wound in his right shoulder. "Huh?" I swing again, but he dodges. I kick him in the face as he dodges. "What's going on? Your hits keep getting stronger and stronger." Freeza grabs my ankle and slams me into the ground.

I get up immediately and shoot several beams into his face. 350,000… "ENOUGH!" Freeza punches me in the face and then I get hit with a beam, ultimately slamming me into a hill near Vegita.

"Baka." Vegita mutters. Vegita is now at 230,000. Dende is also pulling himself out of a hill. I jump right back up. "Huh?" Krillin seems astonished. "How can you keep fighting like that?" he asks me. "Easy, I don't feel pain." Freeza lands in front of us. "Impressive."

"But I'll show you my new power. It is beyond your understanding. Prepare!" Freeza warns as he powers up.

Moments later, we see Freeza in his final form. He's so damned… funny? I almost start laughing my ass off as I look upon Freeza. About Vegita's height, smaller muscles, smoothed out skin, and mostly white except a few splotches of purple on his lower legs, forearms, shoulders, gut, and head. The only thing that keeps me from laughing is his power.

For the first time ever, I get an accurate reading on his true power. 1,200,000. We're dead. Freeza points is finger at us, and shoots a beam. It hits and kills Dende. "Now no one can heal you." Freeza states. He then disappears and reappears right in front of us.

"Damn you…" I mutter. Gohan attacks him, but misses. Same for Krillin and Piccilo. They keep attacking and then fly back. Freeza shoot two finger beams at Gohan.

"LOOK OUT FOOL!" Vegita yells as he hits Gohan, forcing him to fall down under the beams.

"Heh… you will die Freeza." Vegita says plainly. "You're not afraid. Are you insane?" Freeza asks. "I am the Super Saiyajin. I am your worst nightmare. And now, you die…" Freeza starts laughing. "KAKAROTTO WILL NOT BE THE NEXT ONE!" Vegita lunges at Freeza. Freeza dodges. "I can see you!" Vegita attacks, but Freeza disappears again.

"Hahaha! If I get any more serious, you just might get motion sickness. Super Saiyajin indeed!" Freeza mocks. "Shit…" Vegita mutters.

Chapter 43

"You cannot win." "NO! I AM THE SUPER SAIYAJIN!" Vegita flings his most powerful beam at Freeza. Freeza knocks it away with his foot. Vegita looks on with awe as Freeza head butts him. Freeza knocks Vegita around like a volleyball.

"The war is lost…" I mutter. I watch with sadness as Freeza slams Vegita into the ground in front of us and chokes him to death with his tail. Then he discards Vegita's dead body.

"No…" I mutter. "This cannot be…" "Oh? And what will you do?" "DIE!" I jump at Freeza in one, final suicide attack. If we have lost, and I cannot have my revenge, I will die facing Freeza to the end. In my ultimate anger of loss, my power rockets to 530,000. But it's not nearly enough.

Punches, kicks, beams, they're all worthless against him. I can do nothing to him. Even though my power keeps rising, which is currently at 630,000, I can still do nothing. Freeza knocks me around a bit and slams me into the ground. He places his foot on my chest and points his palm at my face.

"You were a great warrior, #9. It's a shame it had to end like this." Freeza tells me. I spit on him. "Very well…" Freeza blasts me and walks off.

Darkness slowly engulfs me. But this isn't the darkness of being knocked out, nor the darkness of sleep. I'm dying. The war really is lost. It doesn't matter if Kakarotto finally recovers and fights, no one is strong enough. Freeza is the devil among the living, and no one can survive his wrath.

Will I go to heaven or hell? Most likely hell, for the evil deeds of extermination I have done. But I am coming to meet you, #8… I will be with you again at last. No one can take that much from me. I grin as the world fades around me.

Chapter 44

There is nothing but darkness. "#9…" a voice calls to me. A familiar voice. "#8!" I call out. "Yes. It is me #9…" she appears before me. "I'm sorry, I lost." "That's okay. You fought to your fullest, and that is what matters to me." she responds.

She looks sad suddenly. "Why so sad? We're together again." "Not for long…" "What?" "You were not meant to be here, #9." she explains. "That is why we're here, if you were truly meant to die, we would not be in this darkness." "This is confusing. I watched as Freeza blew my head off." I can't comprehend this…

"You will be brought back alive soon… unfortunately, I will not be able to go with you." "Don't worry, I'll get the Dragonballs and bring you back!" "No… I want to stay here, even though I want to be alive with you again badly. When I died, I learned of my past life. I don't want to leave it again. Please…" she begs of me. Damn, I want her back… but I can't deny her that if it means so much to her. "…okay…" I say sadly. "Do your best for me. I'll meet you again." #8 says. I start fading. The last thing I see is a tear drop from #8's eye. I shed a tear too.

Chapter 45

I open my eyes and sit up hastily. "Where am I?" I ask to nothing but the air. The sky is black, and the ground is shaking. "Why am I alive? WHY!" I scream at the sky. I leap into the air and destroy an island, just to release some anger. My power is now 700,000. But does it matter? I still can't beat Freeza. I want to stay dead, to stay with #8. DAMN IT ALL TO HELL!

"Huh?" I notice some flashes to the west. Two absurdly high powers are over there. One at 1,200,000… Freeza. But the other… it's at 1,300,000. Who is it? I take off towards the two fighters.

When I'm within half a mile, I'm able to make out the other fighter. Shirtless, orange pants, blue boots, yellow hair and aura. Then I can identify him. Kakarotto? How'd he get so powerful, and what's with his hair? Is this… is this Super Saiyajin?

I see Vegita floating in front of them, about to shoot Freeza. Isn't he dead? But then he vanishes. Huh? All of a sudden, I vanish too.

"THUNK!" I land heavily in a forest. "What the hell's going on here!" I yell out.

"We're back!" I hear some kid yell. I look behind me and see Gohan jumping for joy.

"What's going on here!" I ask Gohan, barely restraining myself from screaming in frustration. "I don't know… but we're back!" Gohan yells.

I leave in search of someone who will give me answers. "I may be able to answer you." I look to see a huge Nameck. "Fine, what happened?" I ask, ignoring the rest of the people gathered around this giant Nameck. "What happened, is that Kami used the Earth Dragonballs to resurrect everyone killed by Freeza on Nameck. Then Dende used the now working Dragonballs on Nameck to teleport everyone but Freeza and Goku on to Earth." he finishes.

If EVERYONE killed by Freeza on Nameck was brought back… I search frantically for #8. But I can't find her anywhere. Then Zarbon's last words hit me. "Heh… you… will never… know… not… him…". Not him? I finally understand what he was telling me. Freeza didn't finish #8 off. And since Zarbon was the only other person as far as I know… that means Zarbon had killed off #8. So then I was able to get partial revenge. It's only partial though, since Freeza was who decided upon it.

"Damnit…" I look at the ground… what's left for me then? "What's wrong?" Gohan asks me. "Leave me be boy…" I walk off to nowhere in particular. The people I met on Nameck look after me almost… worriedly? Why should they be worried? I was going to kill them for their Dragonball. I didn't care for their lives, why should they care for mine?

"Hey…" Gohan says. "Shut up. And why are you so worried about me? I was going to kill you for your Dragonball earlier. I didn't, and still don't, care for your lives. Why should you give a shit about how I feel?" I throw at them as I walk off. I don't even wait for an answer.

I wander for a while. Nothing matters. Nothing matters at all. I couldn't even get my proper revenge. And now I'm also out of work. I sit down in the middle of the forest.

"HAHAHA!" I see Vegita laughing and throwing grass into the air. It's a pretty funny sight, and it lifts my mood slightly.

Vegita then gets up and goes towards the others. I shrug, nothing else to do. I follow.

I look around. There are a lot of Namecks here. They were brought back to life too it seems. Makes sense. I recognize that Nameck Elder, from earlier. Was that only this morning? It feels like it was days ago. He's walks up to me.

"I knew you weren't evil like the others." he says. "HMPH!" I respond. "I've been told on what you did. Fighting Freeza." "So? Vegita fought too, but he is just as evil." "You're different. He did it for self gain, you were doing it for another reason, weren't you?" "My reasons are none of your business." I say as I walk away.

"Son… Goku…" I hear Piccilo say. He's looking up into the sky. "Is Kakarotto your friend or something?" I ask. Piccilo glares at me. "Sort of…" he looks at the sky once more. "He's still on Nameck, isn't he?" "Yeah." "Damn… but from the looks of it… the planet seemed to be destroying itself." I say. "Freeza put a large hole in it. It's going to explode shortly." Piccilo tells me. So, Kakarotto is dead then? The only Saiyajin left is Vegita. Wait… and Gohan too. He called Kakarotto his 'Daddy'. I wonder how it feels, to be the prince of dust?

I hope Freeza dies a slow death. He's caused everyone much loss. These people from Earth had lost a friend, Vegita lost his homeworld, and I lost #8. But am I really all that much better than Freeza? I've destroyed countless worlds too. Put species into extinction. Destroyed lives. Heh, some warrior I am, brooding over my loss when I've caused millions just as much loss if not more. What a hypocrite I am. But it still hurts. Maybe I'm paying for it now. At least the other millions I've hurt are dead and don't have to deal with my loss.

Vegita starts a fight with Gohan. Surprisingly, Gohan gets a hit in. But Vegita retaliates and nearly kills the child before Piccilo interrupts. Vegita flies off somewhere.

Some sort of ceremony takes place and that Nameck Elder I know replaces that giant Nameck as their leader. The Dragonballs from Nameck also somehow followed us here. But they aren't usable yet.

"HEY! Everybody! While we wait to use Dragonballs, why don't you stay at my place?" someone yells out. I turn around. It's that blue haired girl. Her name is Bulma, I think. Well, why not? I have nowhere else to go.


	6. Chapter 6

PART VI: THE AFTERMATH

Mere days later…

**Name: #9**

**Power Level: 700,000**

**Status: Ex-Mercenary, Hacker**

**New Physical Characteristics: Got rid of ponytail. Hair parted off**

**to sides. Changed clothing. Wears black baggy pants (like**

**Mirai Trunks), black boots, black armored chestplate from**

**Freeza's army, and a tan trenchcoat.**

**Name: #8**

**Status: Dead**

**Name: Vegita**

**Power Level: 650,000**

**Status: Ex-Mercenary, Saiyajin Prince**

**New Physical Characteristics: None**

**Name: Freeza**

**Last seen power: 1,200,000**

**Status: Dead**

**Name: Dodoria**

**Status: Dead**

**Name: Zarbon**

**Status: Dead**

**Name: Kewie**

**Status: Dead**

**Name: Krillin**

**Power Level: 70,000**

**Status: Monk, Fighter**

**Name: Kakarotto/Goku**

**Last seen power: 1,300,000**

**Status: Dead**

**Name: Gohan**

**Power Level: 120,000**

**Status: Student, Fighter**

**Name: Piccilo**

**Power Level: 350,000**

**Status: Fighter**

**Name: Dende**

**Power Level: Negligible**

**Status: Healer**

Chapter 46

This place is huge. 'Capsule Corporation' it's called. Huge and perfect for my needs. I'm now sitting on a couch across from Bulma in her and her parent's living room.

"So… how long are you staying here?" Bulma asks me. "I don't know. I guess until you kick me out. I have nowhere else left to go." I tell her. She looks at me. Bulma seems to be a bit nervous around me. No wonder. I bet I scared the shit out of her when I asked for the Dragonball that one day. It sure looked like it. But Bulma is the type who's too curious for her own good. And even though she's afraid, she wants some answers to questions too.

"Why do you people do that?" she asks me. "Huh? Do what?" "You, Vegita, and whoever else who worked under Freeza. Why do you go around pillaging planets?" Oh. "Well, people do it for various reasons. I can't explain why EVERYONE did it. But I did it because it was a job. A job I enjoyed, and involved what I was created to do. To fight. It was also a good source of money." I explain.

"But, didn't you ever feel guilty about the things you did?" she asks. "Not at all. It was my job, and I did it faithfully." "How could you not feel anything!" "Well, lets take this scenario. Have you ever squashed a bug?" "Eh…" "Truthfully now." "Yes." "How many?" "Several." "Have you ever felt guilty about it?" "No." "It's pretty much the same case. Those races were in the way of our planet trade, as those bugs were either in the way of something you were doing or bothering you." she looks at me disgustedly.

"How can you compare those two things?" I shrug I response.

"Hey! Why do you always seem so down?" Bulma asks me afterwards. "You're delving into personal matters." "So?" "Drop it." I tell her. "I want to know." "You won't get any answer out of me." damn would she give up already? "Come on. You'll feel better if you get it off of your chest." I doubt it. "Fine, be that way!" Bulma exclaims. I get up.

"Where are you going?" "To train." "Why? There's nothing to fight." "Not much else to do." I respond. I step outside and start doing some warm up exercises.

"Hey, one more question." Bulma says. "What?" I say as I do pushups while I hold my body straight up in the air. "It seemed Freeza's army was at least almost entirely made of aliens. But you look like a human. What are you?" "Heh, I'm human… sort of." I leave it hanging like that. "Sort of? What do you mean by that!" Bulma is almost screaming, from frustration or excitement I can't tell. Probably a combination of both, from what I know, she's a technology freak. Androids would definitely interest her.

"Ever hear of Dr.Gero?" "Of course! He was formally of the Red Ribbon army." "Well…" I start between pushups "the Red Ribbon wanted soldiers. Powerful soldiers. Guns weren't enough. So they kidnapped people off the streets. People who were already strong. Strong enough to be able to withstand Gero's experiments. I was one of them. He turned me into an android, and I lost all memories of my past life. But it made me a powerful warrior. Unfortunately, he hadn't perfected androids yet, and I still had a will of my own. I didn't like Gero much, and I left." I finish.

"How'd you get to Freeza?" "Some fool alien crash landed here a long time ago. It was so weak that it died in the crash. I just modified the ship and took off." I explain. "How many androids are there?" "Currently, just me." "Currently?" "There was one more. But no longer alive." "What happened?" "I won't get into it." I tell her. "Personal matters again?" "Yep." I then start doing katas.

"Why can't you tell me those things?" "Because those are things I REALLY don't want to go through." I explain. "Why not?" "Because they're very personal." damn she's persistent. Almost like #8…

I punch a small crater into the ground without realizing it. "AH!" Bulma jumps back. I just continue with my exercises.

"If you really want to learn some interesting stuff, I can tell you about Vegitasei." I offer. "Vegitasei?" "The home planet of the Saiyajins. Vegita and Kakarotto, or Goku if you insist." "Really?" she's interested now. I could threaten to blow her head off and I bet she won't stop bothering me 'till I tell her about Vegitasei. But at least it got her off the topic of MY life.

"Yeah. It's not a very friendly planet. It looks very pretty and is quite similar to Earth, but a bit rougher. The Saiyajins aren't very nice though." "I know that much!" I ignore that. "I was once an ambassador for Freeza to Vegitasei. I wasn't there long though. A very primitive planet. The only technology they had was from Freeza. All they devoted their lives to was combat. Nothing else. It was almost scary, obsessive compulsive I tell you. Vegita is, or was, the Prince of that planet." "He was?" "Yes. But, like all other Saiyajins, he is devoted to combat as well. Rank and ruling on that planet is determined by power. Family ties weren't strong either." "Oh?" "Yeah. Know how you gained you 'family' position?" "How?" "Well, if you're male you kill your father. If you're female, you kill your mother. And if a brother or sister got the rank before you, you kill them for it instead. As I said, power drove everything on Vegitasei." Bulma goes pale. "You're serious?" "Yeah." Now she seems sick. "I couldn't ever imagine killing my parents." she states. "Yeah, but they had very weak family ties. Parents and their children would never grow up with love or compassion, and would often even grow up hating each other." "What!" "Yes. On Vegitasei, there was no room for love or compassion. Just hatred and pride." I answer. Bulma is aghast.

"You keep saying 'was'. What happened to Vegitasei?" Bulma asks. I stop doing my katas. "Freeza saw the potential of the Saiyajins and grew very cautious of them. They were a VERY potentially powerful race. One day, a Saiyajin named Bardock went insane. At least, I think so. He claimed Freeza was going to destroy Vegitasei. Bardock was able to gather several warriors and went up to face Freeza. Freeza finally had enough and he destroyed the entire planet." I explain.

"That's… sad. Even for a planet of barbarians." Bulma finally says after a bit. "Yeah, but it really gets you to question your loyalties when you see something like that." "You watched Freeza destroy Vegitasei?" "Yep." I respond. I think back for a second to that day. Beautiful sight but horrible outcome.

I start to take off into the air. "Where are you going this time?" "Off to find Vegita, where ever he is on this planet. I want a good spar this morning." I tell her as I take off.

Chapter 47

I find Vegita eating some animals. "Hello Vegita." he whirls around. I love no one being able to sense me. "What the hell do you want?" "I want a spar with you. Don't tell me you're going to back down." I taunt. "I told you, one day I WILL beat you!" Vegita throws back at me. Good. Vegita gets up from his meal and gets ready.

I drop my sword and wait for his first attack. He leaps at me and I jump straight over him shooting beams. Vegita easily dodges the attack and flies after me.

We engage in a long string of punches and kicks while in mid air. No damage is dealt. Neither of us is completely serious yet. I stop pulling my punches and Vegita does the same.

One attack gets through and I hit Vegita right in the face. As Vegita flies back, he shoots a strong beam at me. I fly straight up to avoid it, but Vegita shoots a second beam which hits me in the stomach.

Vegita then flies forward and socks me in the stomach. It seems Vegita is still a bit unused to my unusual stamina, and I elbow him right in the back of the neck, hard. He plummets to the ground but stops himself just before he hits.

I drop down and kick him in the chest while he's still a bit dazed. Vegita's body floats up a bit. I clasp my hands together and hit his back, slamming him back down.

"KISAMA!" Vegita leaps up and uppercuts me in the jaw, making me stumble back, slightly off balance. He then kicks at me, but I jump up and shoot a beam at the base of his skull. Vegita gets pissed and unleashes several punches and kicks, which I have a hard time blocking.

Now I'm on the full defensive. I let some of the weaker hits go through so that I can fight back. Vegita reels back as I hit him in his jaw, but I give chase and kick him in the spine. As he falls, I follow. But Vegita turns around suddenly and does a machine gun attack just like #8's. Every single one of the beams hits me.

"Damn you're good." I mutter. Vegita dashes at me but I sidestep and knee him in the gut. He drops to the ground. "Bakana!". "You've lost again. But keep it up." "Don't patronize me!" I shrug.

Now I won't be able to fight him again for a little bit. Unfortunately, we don't have those regeneration tanks here on Earth. But luckily, Saiyajins do recover MUCH faster than most species do.

"Ja na, Vegita." I say as my sword flies into my hands and I fly off. I didn't hurt him THAT badly. He'll recover shortly. But we were only doing a quick spar.

I land back at Capsule Corporation. That took, what? Half an hour to an hour, I think.

I walk to my room. But I pass by where the Namecks live first. I grin. It's so damned funny. I look over and see that Elder Nameck playing golf. Then I see some Nameck kids standing up on chairs playing poker. I don't stop grinning until I reach my room.

Once I enter, I close and lock my door. Small, but cozy. I'll have to look into getting a computer though.

But right now, I'll practice my telekinetic skills. I can move my sword, but what else can I mess with?

I look forward at a cup I drank coffee out of this morning and concentrate. It shakes a bit and starts lifting slowly. I spin it around a few times and drop it back down.

Let's see, what else can I try? I notice an empty can of soda and lift it up into the air. Then, while holding up the can, I make my sword unsheathe itself and lift into the air. Finally, the sword flies forward and cuts the can in half. The can drops and the sword sheathes itself. Well, seems I'm not doing too bad at all.

"Konnichi Wa, Gohan!" Bulma yells out from the living room area. Isn't that kid forced into constant study?

"Hi Bulma!" Gohan replies. 'grumble'. Eh? I haven't eaten in a long while, at least that's what my stomach tells me. Guess I should feed myself in a little while. Wait… Gohan is a part Saiyajin, at least that's what I've been told. That means if he gets hungry, which won't be too unlikely, I won't get much food!

I get up and walk towards the kitchen area.

"Hey Gohan." Toss at the boy as I pass. He's wearing rather formal looking clothing. "Oh… uh… hi." Gohan replies shyly. I look at him. "Still afraid of me?" I ask. "Well, sort of." "Don't worry about it. I won't go on a killing spree or anything." I tell him. He still seems unsure. "Look Gohan, first off, the last thing I want to do is wreck a planet I have no or little means of escaping from. Second, I am out of my job and there's no one to order me to clear out this planet, so I have no incentive to destroy it anyway. Feel better?" Gohan nods weakly. I continue to the kitchen.

"Oh, so you do eat." Bulma says. "Not much." I open up the fridge. Let's see here. Vegetables, meats, and some drinks. I throw together a large ham sandwich, grab a glass of water, and start eating. I finish it shortly.

"Hey, Bulma. Think I could be able to get a computer terminal?" I ask. Hey, nothing to loose. "Why?" "Because I have an interest in computers." "Uh… sure. I guess." "Thanks." I reply.

"Can you help me with my homework?" Gohan asks Bulma. "Sure Gohan. What do you need help on?" I start to walk towards the door. "This problem here, what's x3-6x2+9x factored?" "Answer's x times (x-3)2." I say as I leave the building.

I fly up into the air and look for a suitable battle field area. Shortly I land in a great spot to practice. Just dirt and pillars of stone. I practice my telekinetic powers on a boulder. I'm able to move it, but not easily. After warming up a while though, I'm able to do the same thing more easily. Then I start practicing my attacks. Hours go by…

SHIT! I need to get moving. I just remembered, they were going to wish their friends back today. Vegita and I were going to attend, to see Kakarotto return. Within fifteen minutes, I make it to the area. They're just starting to bring out the Dragon.

I quickly stop the sudden urge to ask Dende to bring back #8. She's dead, and she wants to stay there. I have to deal with that.

All of a sudden, some old man, I think his name is Roshi or something, asks Dende to wish a better wife for Kakarotto. Everyone's amused except Kakrotto's wife, Chichi, I think. He quickly adds he's kidding.

Finally, Dende asks for the Dragon to bring back Kakarotto. The Dragon says something in the Nameckian language.

"He's not dead." Dende translates. "Actually, he's very well and on his way here." Dende informs us all. Wha?

Vegita looks up. He seems pissed. All of a sudden, he gets up, goes in a spaceship, and leaves. I guess Vegita doesn't want to wait for Kakarotto.

They start to wish back their other friends then. Damnit. I leave.

Chapter 48

Several months pass. And more of their friends are brought back. I also get enlightened on some of the major past events on this planet.

Not much has changed. I've been able to use Bulma's workshop for an upgrade. Also I've been training a lot. All of that puts me at about 1,100,000. I like gravity chambers. But it takes time to get used to that kind of power increase. I'm finally getting the hang of my power though.

The Namecks were able to wish for their planet back and were teleported there.

As for the gravity chamber, it goes up to 300. But I'm already maxed out on the gravity. Heh, I didn't get it for free though. Since it became apparent that I'm technologically literate after I got that computer terminal, Bulma had me do most of the work. Actually, all she did was give me the specs to the chamber. But that's okay, it gives me something to do.

Just yesterday, Vegita returned. And Bulma, somehow and for whatever reason, convinced Vegita to stay at Capsule Corporation. I'll never eat again.

Now Vegita is using MY gravity chamber. I only let him for one reason, it's good for light sparring. I beat him yet again yesterday after he came back, and I figured he'd be infuriated since he went through all that training. But Vegita just smiled. A mocking smile. Vegita's holding back, I know it. I can't zero in on his power though.

"OOH! THAT DOES IT!" Bulma's pissed yet again. Vegita… he sure does like making fun of Bulma. Much like I enjoyed mocking Fatty. I look up from my space on the couch. So much for light meditation.

"If you wouldn't get so pissed, he wouldn't find it so amusing." I tell her. "ARGH! I don't get it!" she screams. I flinch from the noise. She glares at me. "Hey now, don't get pissed at me. I only flinched because you're loud as all hell!" "AHH! Does it have something to do with working for Freeza!" man she's annoying. "No… but I did learn a quick and easy way to shut someone up…" "ARGH!" I point my finger at her mouth and charge up a finger beam. She stares at me. "You know, skin fuses together very nicely…" Bulma runs off. "And that… is the trick." I murmur to myself and release the ki harmlessly.

Vegita walks in from his training. "Vegita, stop annoying her so much. I think I'm going to get a migrane." I tell him. Vegita smirks at me. "Not my fault if she can't take an insult." I sigh. "Well, least I got her to shut up…" "Really? How'd you achive that miracle?" Vegita asks me. "I threatened to fuse her lips together." Vegita grins as much as Vegita can ever grin and walks off somewhere. Probably the fridge.

Out of boredom, I start juggling some pictures with my powers. Too easy without hands. I place them back where they were.

"KNOCK! KNOCK!" Eh? I open the door without moving. It's Gohan. "What are you doing here? Don't you study all the time?" I ask him. "I got some time off." Gohan replies. "I swear, she works you too hard. You're past Geometry yet you aren't even old enough to attend Junior High School!" I tell him. He gives me a goofy grin. "I just wanted to see what Bulma's doing. Where is she?" "Probably hiding from me…" I tell him. He stares at me. "Check in the laboratory or something." "Thanks." Gohan leaves.

Sigh… nothing to do. Already hacked into all of Capsule Corporation's top secret files, nothing truly interesting. Except for the encapsulation techniques.

Hey… come to think of it… I've never gone to Kami's Palace. Of course, I've never had any reason to go there. But what the hell? I'm bored.

I get up and start searching.

After burning the entire morning and almost the entire afternoon…

Hey… this looks like the place. Damn it's high up. I land on it and peer over the edge. Yep, it's high up all right.

"Hello #9." I turn around immediately. I look upon an old, frail looking Nameck with a cane. "Who are you?" "I'm the Kami of this planet." "Huh? Wouldn't the Kami be human or something?" he shrugs.

"How do you know my name?" "I am Kami, I know all." he jokes. Whatever. "I hope you don't mind me dropping in, I'm rather bored." "It's okay #9." he says casually. Damn, one would think I could kill him and he wouldn't give a shit.

"Exactly how much do you know?" "Several things. I can read the minds of almost everyone on this planet and see partially into the future." "Can you read my mind?" "Not well, but I know you are troubled." "Feh, so long as you can't read my mind I'm fine. I have personal things in here you know?" I tap my forehead.

"Did you make the Dragonballs?" "Yes." Interesting, but not too useful. There is one thing I'm REALLY curious about though…

"Hey, Kami, why does Piccilo seem so evil compared to the rest of the Namecks?" I ask. "Well…"

The explanation takes up a good portion of the day. All very interesting indeed.

"I guess I should head back down. Ja na, Kami." I tell him. "Good bye." I fly back to Capsule Corporation.

I first run across Vegita exiting my gravity chamber as I land. He's wearing blue jeans and some button shirt with 'Badman' on the back. Wonder where he got that?

Vegita ignores me. His stomach must be calling. I walk into my gravity chamber and start exercising. Several hours later…

I exit the chamber and enter Capsule Corporation. Vegita seems worried. Which is strange, since it's actually showing on his almost constant poker face. "What's bothering you Vegita?" I ask. "I… don't know. It just feels like we're doomed." From what? "Explain." "Feh." Vegita responds. So much for that. I go to my room and get some sleep.

Chapter 49

I wake up. Surprisingly, I'm not woken up by a screaming Bulma like I was yesterday morning. I stretch, dress, and go out to the living room.

Vegita sits on the couch, in his armor as usual. But he seems rather morose. "Freeza's coming." he says. "Uh… he's dead." "No. He's coming this way." Vegita tells me. Well, I'm still skeptical, but I don't want to find out later that Vegita is right.

Yamcha walks out with Bulma. "Prepare, Freeza's coming." Vegita tells them both. "Yeah, right, Goku killed him. Remember?" Bulma throws back. "Hey, while I'm still skeptical, what if Vegita's right? We can't take a chance on this." I tell them. "You're both being paranoid!" Yamcha tells us.

Then, all of a sudden, I notice it. A power, far off, but powerful. Freeza, and someone closely related to him. Too far to get a reading, but close enough to tell. "Vegita's right, I've noticed the power." Yamcha looks up suddenly. "It's faint, but it's there…" "Come on! We have no time to spare!" Vegita says while standing up quickly. Yamcha goes off to change into some fighting clothes. Vegita and I take off.

"Shit… I thought Kakarotto finished him off." "Apparently the fool didn't do his job!" Vegita retaliates. We land in a clearing.

An hour later…

Piccilo, Yamcha, and Bulma have arrived. Yamcha and Bulma bicker. "Feh, let the foolish woman come and die if she wants!" Vegita says deadpan. A bald guy with three eyes and a short pale kid land. Only met them once. Teinshinhan and Chaozu.

"You're still here Vegita?" Teinshinhan asks. Vegita doesn't even respond. Teinshinhan looks like he's about to attack Vegita, but holds himself back. Gohan arrives shortly afterwards.

"HUH!" all the warriors say simultaneously and look up. A ship flies by. Not any ship, Freeza's space station.

I get a reading on the powers. Freeza's at 1,300,000 and the other is at 1,000,000. Damn. I can take that second one, but what about Freeza.

"You fought that monster?" Teinshinhan asks. "He's stronger." Gohan replies. I and I alone see his full power.

"Keep low!" Vegita orders. "Who made you our leader?" Yamcha asks roughly. "Shut up! If you want to fly and get killed from a distance, go right ahead!" I tell him. We hike to Freeza's ship.

"Huff… huff… can't you guys fly and carry me a bit?" Bulma asks. "You wanted to come." Vegita says. Bulma glares at him.

About fifteen minutes later…

"About time!" Freeza jeers at us. Freeza is now slightly deformed due to that he wears several bionic parts. Bulma stays back and hides. There are several soldiers around the area. "The rest of you can take the soldiers or the other guy. I want Freeza…" I tell them all and step forward. "Oh? And what can you do?" "Plenty enough to kill you!" I yell back. "HAHAHA! I killed you so easily, how do you expect to win this time?" Freeza asks me. "Just watch…" I leap forward and kick Freeza in the head, making him reel backwards. Freeza punches at me and hits me in my gut, but I just punch him several times in the face. "Much better!" Freeza shoots a beam at me, I leap over it and pull out my sword. "Die…" I charge up my sword with ki and fling it at him tip first. Freeza tries do dodge, but I use my mental abilities to make the sword change direction. It hits his forearm and sticks into it. "ARGH!" I rush him once more while making my sword fly back into my hands. Freeza sidesteps and elbows me in the back of the neck making me fall forward. I leap up but Freeza has his tail around my leg and slams me into the ground, lifts me up, and slams me again. Damn… I try to cut his tail off, but he pulls it back before I can slice it. Fire surrounds me as the ground below me rumbles. "SHIT!" I leap straight up and the area I was just at explodes. "Good job! Keep me amused!" Freeza kicks me in the shin and ki blasts me in the face. I turn around and hit his jaw with the handle of my sword, a simple but painful attack.

Freeza flies back and shoots a beam at me. I put out my hand and force it to fly away from me. "Nan da!" Freeza exclaims as I fly forward and head butt him in the face. I then attempt to skewer him but he dodges and kicks me in the stomach, allowing me the perfect moment to elbow him in the throat. Freeza is unaffected and punches me in the face.

All of a sudden, something smooth wraps around my neck! Huh? I look down and see Freeza's tail cutting off my air supply. That's fine, I can hold my breath longer than you can squeeze buddy. I elbow him in the stomach, again, again, and again…

Freeza finally relinquishes his hold on me. I turn around but a beam meets me instead and flings me backwards. "Damn…" a red energy disc flies at me. I leap over it, but it follows. Gotta block it. I concentrate on the disc and barely reflect it with my sword and ki combined. But I go flying backwards and land roughly on the ground.

A foot lands on my chest. "Hohoho! A good fight, but you lose in the end! Doesn't this seem familiar?" I summon all my strength and fling him off of me. "No, you die this time." I leap upon him and barely miss his head with my sword blade by half an inch. "Really?" A knee hits my stomach, but I just head butt Freeza in the face. Freeza flings me into a hill. I pull myself out and shoot out a magnified version of my crescent beam from my blade. Freeza jumps ant the beam hits the ground. A large flame flies up from the ground and disappears as quickly as it appeared. There is now a long and deep, yet thin, chasm where my beam hit.

Freeza flies at me and kicks me in the face. I roll on the ground and kick him in the gut with both of my feet. But then he machine gun blasts me into the ground. I leap up right away.

"Baka!" Vegita calls out to me. "Let me handle this!" "NO! FREEZA IS MINE!" I yell at him. Instead of waiting for Vegita, I leap forward and sock Freeza in the jaw, but he then flings me to the ground. He grabs my foot as I kick, and slams me to the ground again. Damnit…

I stare at Freeza, and he flies backwards into a hill, but he wasn't damaged. "NANI!" I shoot dual beams at him, but they're blocked. Freeza leaps at me and drives me into the ground further by landing on me feet first. A foot hits Freeza in the face, flinging him off of me. It wasn't my foot.

"Oh? You want to fight now Vegita?" Freeza taunts. "You're too weak Vegita!" Vegita grins at this and starts charging. Now I get to see what he's been holding back. I estimate at least 900,000, possibly matching me even. I'm wrong, he goes beyond. Finally, his power stops at 1,400,000. And he has a golden glow. So that's why he would smile. A second Super Saiyajin. I have to upgrade myself to read higher hidden power levels.

"No… BAKANA!" Freeza says in shock. Vegita walks forward grinning. Freeza doesn't stand a chance, I've weakened him down to 1,200,000. And now his power has dropped to 1,000,000 just from disbelief alone. But I could have finished it… so what if my armor is chipped? So what if I am bloody? I could have finished it… now I'll never have my revenge…

Vegita disappears and reappears behind Freeza. "Sayonara, kusotare." Vegita shoves his fist right through Freeza's chest. Freeza drops dead.

The other warrior gawks. I will at least have this man. Leaping forward, I stab the warrior in the stomach. "Ack… who…" I knee him in the head. He staggers backward. "No… our family is the strongest…" I shoot a beam through the alien's chest. He drops to his knees. "No longer…" I say and decapitate him. Ah well, least my power increased to 1,200,000. At least I got that much out of this.

Looking around, I notice all the other soldiers are dead, and none of our warriors are hurt.

"What's that?" Krillin looks to the sky. Not more…

"DADDY!" Gohan screams. I see a capsule similar to that of the Ginyu Force's fly through the sky. "Let's follow!" Yamcha says to us all. We follow.

Chapter 50

The capsule opens up and Kakarotto comes out. He looks confused. Not to mention a bit strange looking too. Blue pads on his torso, baggy white pants and shit, and pinkish collar thing. "How'd you know where to meet me?" "We saw your capsule landing." Krillin fills in. "DADDY!" Gohan rushes to Goku. "Kakarotto…" Vegita mutters.

"Who beat Freeza?" "I did." Vegita answers. "What about the other person with Freeza?" "That was me." I tell him. "Now Kakarotto, we fight." "Not so fast!" Bulma argues. Argh… I slap my right hand onto my forehead.

"Out of my way woman!" "Why not Bulma?" "Chichi would want to see you. You two can fight later!" "I said OUT OF MY WAY WOMAN!" Vegita shoves past Bulma. "I'm sorry Vegita, but she's right. We can fight later." Kakarotto offers. "NO!" but Kakarotto is already leaving with Gohan.

"DAMN YOU KAKAROTTO!" "Family comes first Vegita." Bulma says "AND DAMN YOU WOMAN!" Vegita isn't happy. He flies off to somewhere.

Later that afternoon…

We've all been invited over to Kakarotto's house. Even me and Vegita. Either Kakarotto is really forgiving, or braindead. He has to know about what my job was.

Bulma is all dressed up while Yamcha is in some beat up slacks and Vegita and I are in our fighting armor. That silly floating cat Puar is there too. "You three aren't planning on going dressed like that?" Bulma asks. "Why not?" I throw back at her. "You can't just go there dressed in torn up clothing and battle armor!" "And why not woman?" Vegita interjects. "OOOH! FINE! But I won't have Yamcha dressed like you two!" she grabs Yamcha and drags him to who knows where. Vegita doesn't pay attention and I shrug.

"Why are you going?" Vegita asks me. "Nothing better to do. Besides, I want to see Kakarotto too. I didn't know you cared." I tell him mockingly. "HMPH! I don't, I just don't want you in the way of our spar!" Vegita responds harshly.

"Let's go!" Bulma says. Yamcha is all dressed up too. "Meet you there." I say as Vegita and I fly out the window. "Wait a sec!" Bulma calls after us to no avail.

Within a couple minutes Vegita and I land at Kakarotto's house. I knock. Chichi opens the door and pales at the sight of Vegita. "Ah! You're early!" I hear Kakarotto call from within his house. Chichi reluctantly lets us in. "Get ready Kakarotto." Vegita says. "We can't fight now!" "Why not?" "They're called formalities Vegita." I say. He scowls at me. "Foolish." "KNOCK! KNOCK!" Chichi opens the door. "Why hello Bulma! Come in." Bulma steps in with Yamcha and Puar.

Vegita goes to a corner of the living room, crosses his arms as usual, and stands there glaring at everyone. That's Vegita for you. I just find a chair and sit down.

Within the next ten to fifteen minutes, the rest show up. Krillin, Teinshinhan, Chaozu, Roshi, Oolong, Korin, Yajirobie, and even Piccilo.

"PICCILO!" Gohan yells out once the Nameck steps in. The kid likes him a lot. Chichi seems a bit freaked out in the presence of Vegita and Piccilo. I don't seem to bother her much though. Then again, she's never met me.

"Who are you?" Chichi asks me. "#9." "#9? Goku never told me about you." Chichi tells me. "Former mercenary." I say briefly. "Like… Vegita?" she asks. "Yes." she seems to edge away from me. I grin.

Shortly, a large lunch is ready. Thankfully, I don't need to eat, because within seconds there is little food left. Kakarotto, Gohan, and Vegita had eaten it up rather quickly.

Then Kakarotto explains, or attempts to, what had happened. I listen intently. All in all, Nameck blew up, Goku swiped Ginyu's ship and went to the next coordinate. It took him to Yardrat, where he then learned teleportation. Kakarotto then proves he really can teleport. Very interesting technique.

Well, this has turned out well. I drink some alcohol, but it has no effect. But Krillin seems to be a bit drunk. Have you ever seen a bald, midget monk drunk and swaying? It's very funny.

Roshi tries to get a good look at Bulma's cleavage. Damn, I had no idea Bulma could fight so well. That old man is down for the count.

And of course, the main event for those warriors not busted up or drunk: The fight between Kakarotto and Vegita.

Both power up to their max kis instantly. Vegita is at 1,450,000 and Kakarotto is at 1,500,000. This is going to be a good match.

Everyone starts betting money, but they all end up betting on Kakarotto. I'd bet on Vegita just so that he'd have at least one person behind me, but I don't even have a few universal credits.

Vegita shoots a beam at Kakarotto, who dodges it but gets hit in the face by Vegita. Kakarotto teleports behind Vegita and kicks him in the back. But he jumps back up and tries to kick Kakarotto in the face, who ducks and uppercuts Vegita.

"Not near the house!" I hear Chichi yell. Heh. Kakarotto and Vegita continue trading kicks and punches, and also continue to ruin the surrounding area.

At one point, they both fire beams. "GALICK GUN!" "KAMEHAMEHA!" the beams collide. Damn. For what seems hours, they move their beams back and forth. But finally, Kakarotto gets the upper hand and his beam hit's Vegita.

"HA!" Vegita starts a machinegun attack. Several hit Kakarotto at first, but he dodges the rest. Kakarotto then appears in front of Vegita and head butts him. Vegita reels back, but kicks Kakarotto in the jaw. I'd say this fight is pretty even.

Slowly, but surely, Kakarotto gets Vegita away from his house. Oh yeah, he also starts winning too.

Vegita starts blocking less and less of Kakarotto's attacks. Finally, while Vegita is stunned, Kakarotto arches back, and throws everything into a powerful right hook. It hit's Vegita right in the face and he falls to the ground unconscious. But Kakarotto seems a bit hurt himself, and sways as he walks.

"YEAH GOKU!" some of his friends yell out. I'm glad I didn't have anything to bet.

"Feh, men…" I hear Bulma mutter. I walk over, grab Vegita, and haul him up. Still knocked out. "Damn fool, you're supposed to win." I mutter with amusement.

I easily carry him back to the eating area, and watch as Kakarotto tips over and falls. He's unconscious as well. "Goku!" Chichi rushes over to him.

"I'm carrying this fool back to Capsule Corporation." I tell Bulma. "Wait! I need to shut off the security system." "… fine." Bulma gets in her plane with Yamcha and Puar. We then leave after thanking Chichi. It's getting late anyway.

Chapter 51

Heh. I had to drop Vegita off in the infirmary. He's been out of it for the entire night. I can't blame him. One dislocated arm, three cracked ribs, one broken leg, a slight skull fracture, a little internal injury, and severe muscle strain. He'll be fine in a couple days or so.

Yamcha and Bulma ran off somewhere. Doesn't take very much thought to figure out they want to be alone. I go off and find Kami again.

"Hello #9." Kami greets as I land. "Did you see that fight?" I ask. He nods. "One hell of a fight, wouldn't you say?" "Yes. Very powerful, those two are." Kami tells me. I sigh. "Yeah, but what's it worth? We're stuck here with nowhere else to go." I say, referring to Vegita and I. "Well, I don't know about Vegita. He has Kakarotto to constantly fight." I continue. "You will find that you can adapt to this life." Kami tells me.

"Ah hell, it's like a constant punishment. Crap I went through on Nameck, being out of my job, having nowhere else in this universe to go." I say. "What's bothering you?" "Nothing I'm going to tell." I respond quickly.

"I know you worked for Freeza, loyally too. What made you fight him?" "Something stupid he did." I say vaguely. "And what did he do?" "Meddled with my life." "How?" "In a way that pissed me off." "You won't get anywhere if you don't give a straight answer." Kami tells me.

"I already know what's wrong. I don't know why I even brought it up." I tell him. "What is it?" "A past event and current lack of direction." I say briefly. "What is the past event?" "I won't go any further than that Kami. I may tell you one day, but not today." I say.

"Why are you here?" I hear from behind me. I turn around and see Piccilo. "I'd ask the same of you. I thought you were this planet's resident 'devil'." I throw back. He doesn't answer.

"Is it wise to let him here, Kami?" Piccilo asks. "He hasn't caused any problems." "But he worked with Freeza." "It doesn't matter." Kami says. Piccilo looks at me. "I don't trust you." Piccilo tells me. I shrug. I then walk over to the edge of this floating palace and look down. A wonderful view of Earth.

"Who was I Kami?" I ask, ignoring Piccilo's presence. "What do you mean?" "You say you know almost everything. Who was I before Gero turned me into an android?" I ask again.

Kami doesn't say anything for a bit. "You really weren't very unusual at all. You led a normal life, the only difference is that you weren't afraid of anything and you had an unusual amount of stamina." Kami finally answers.

"Thank you." I tell him while still staring at the Earth. "You're strong, but need to get something off of your mind." Kami tells me. "I will be alright." I respond.

"What will you do then?" Kami asks of me. "I don't know. My life lacks direction. It's hard to get used to this, you know. I come from a life of pillaging planets, but now I've rebelled against my employer and helped in killing him. Also, I now have nothing to do but remain on this planet. Instead of pillaging, I now must protect." I answer him.

"Why would you protect this planet?" Piccilo asks me. "Because, I have nowhere else to go. Not to mention this IS my home planet." Piccilo looks slightly surprised.

"Goodbye Kami, I will see you again." "Good bye #9." I fly back to Capsule Corporation.

I notice that no one is awake when I enter. I also type in the code to turn off the security system, I watched what Bulma put in earlier. Walking inside, I close the door quietly and turn the security system back on.

Slowly navigating to my room, I open the door and enter.

I close my door, turn on a light, and lay on my bed. My sword. I pull out the sword and look at it. I then use my ki to inscribe the word 'Hachigou' on the base of the blade.

Chapter 52

I wake up the next morning. Damn, I didn't even bother to undress last night. Whatever.

I get up and leave my room. Shortly, I run across a very cross looking Bulma in the living room. I cock an eyebrow at her. "What's wrong with you?" I ask. "I broke up with Yamcha." she says. "Ah…" I leave it at that.

Leaving Bulma be, I go to the infirmary to check how Vegita is doing. He's all taped up like a mummy. His power is now at 1,500,000 too. I wonder what Kakarotto is at?

"Hey Vegita." "What do you want?" "To find our what the hell you were doing last night. You were supposed to win damnit." he glares at me.

"He's making remarkable progress!" a doctor behind me says. "I've never seen anyone recover from anything this fast.

"I just want out…" Vegita mutters. I leave to exercise in the gravity room.

A few hours later…

I go back to see if Vegita's recovered. He's still in there. "I'm healed! Let me leave!" Vegita yells at the doctors. "No. With your injuries you're required to stay here for at least four months!" a doctor replies.

"Let the man out, he's healed." I say. "But…" "Take a look at him, does he look injured anymore?" but then Vegita gets up and rips his bandages off. "You have to rest!" "Forget it!" Vegita shoves the doctor out of his way. I shrug and leave.

"What are you doing up Vegita?" Bulma asks when we meet her down the hall, ignoring the fact that he's almost naked. "I'm healed." he says as he goes towards his room.

Bulma stares after him. "Impossible…" she shakes her head. "Hey, Saiyajins heal faster. Not to mention they're more stubborn." I tell her. "I've noticed. At least I can work on my inventions instead of checking on him." Bulma replies.

"What are you working on?" I ask her. "Something Vegita told me about. A regeneration tank." Bulma explains. "Really? I'll help." I offer. "You will?" "Sure, I have little else to do." we go to her workshop.

Several, several hours later…

"There!" Bulma exclaims. We have a working model of a regeneration tank. I didn't even think it could be done with our limited knowledge of it's workings and lack of materials unobtainable on Earth. But we did it. The liqud is clear instead of green, and the frame is made of metal and not some type of plastic. But the point is it works.

"Damn we're good." I say while stretching. "How do we test it?" she asks. "Wait until Vegita and Goku spar again." I tell her. "Well, I'm going to get around outside now." I leave the workshop.

It's almost night. We'd been working on that a long time. Kami's Palace seems like as good as any a place to go to. I fly up into the sky.

"Hello again #9. What did you want to talk about?" "Not really anything, I just enjoy the view." I respond. Kami shrugs. "Still undecided on what to do with your life?" "Yeah. But at least Bulma's latest project kept me busy." "Yes, I noticed." I sigh. "I guess besides from messing with computers and stuff, I could just try and become stronger than Vegita and Kakarotto just for the hell of it." Kami grins. "Did you know it's almost time for a Tenkai Budokai?" "A what?" "Tenkai Budokai. A fighting tournament on this planet." I grin now. "At least that will definatly keep me busy, when is it?" "In about a year and a half." Kami replies.


	7. Chapter 7

PART VII: THE TOURNAMENT AND THE FALL OF A NOBLE MAN 

A year and two months later…

**Name: #9**

**Power Level: 1,850,000**

**Name: Vegita**

**Normal Power Level: 700,000**

**Power Level at Super Saiyajin: 1,900,000**

**Name: Krillin**

**Power Level: 80,000**

**Name: Kakarotto/Goku**

**Normal Power Level: 700,000**

**Power Level at Super Saiyajin: 1,900,000**

**Name: Gohan**

**Power Level: 500,000**

**Name: Piccilo**

**Power Level: 1,050,000**

**Name: Teinshinhan**

**Power Level: 80,000**

**Name: Yamcha**

**Power Level: 80,000**

Chapter 53

For the past two to three months we've all been preparing for the Tenkai Budokai. Piccilo trained hard as hell and made a lot more progress than I thought possible. Also, for some unfathamable reason, Teinshinhan, Yamcha, and Krillin have decided to participate.

Unfortunately, they don't allow weapons so I had to give my sword to Bulma.

Now we're all there. A simple place. Large enough for several hundred people, but it isn't exactly huge by any means. In the middle is a simple and elevated stone ring.

We walk over to the registration and get our numbers.

"Name?" "#9." "… real name?" "#9." "… here's your number" hmm… I got #9. Real funny. Well, actually it isn't at all. Speaking of names, Piccilo signed in as Ma Junior and Kakarotto of course went with Goku.

So… there are a fair amount of fighters here. But nothing to be really worried about. I'd say there's about twenty fighters here, give or take a few. And, besides from our group, they're weak as hell.

I get the first fight. Some pretty guy named Jewel. He reads about 50. Rather strong for a human, but he's still a joke to me.

"I'm going to tear you up!" he tells me. "Don't make me laugh…" he leaps at me and punches me right in the face. I don't even twitch. "Huh?" I look at him and he flies right out of the ring.

"AND NUMBER NINE IS THE WINNER!" I walk out of the ring as the crowd partially boos and partially cheers.

It seems that the pairings are so that no one from our group fights each other for their first match. Strange. I wonder if Kami had a hand in that?

Half an hour later, the real battles begin. The parings are as shown:

Krillin versus TeinshinhanPiccilo versus #9Gohan versus VegitaKakarotto versus Yamcha

I get to fight Piccilo… at least I'll get somewhat of a challenge. And I'm guaranteed a position for the last fight.

Krillin and Teinshinhan walk into the ring and bow at each other. Then Tienshinhan leaps forward and punches Krillin in the jaw but Krillin then kicks Teinshinhan in the stomach. They engage in a long combination of punches and kicks, some hitting, some not. They're both equal.

After a while of this, Teinshinhan jumps up and screams "TAIYO-KEN!" and a bright light comes. Krillin is blinded and Teinshinhan uses ki beams to fling Krillin right off of the ring.

"RING OUT!" TEINSHINHAN WINS!" the announcer yells.

"NEXT MATCH! MA JUNIOR VERSUS NUMBER NINE!"

Piccilo and I walk into the ring. Right away, Piccilo throws his cape and turban off to the side and his power rises to full. So, he wants to start at all out, huh?

"READY? FIGHT!" Piccilo shoots his arm at me. I sidestep smoothly and it misses. I wait for his next attack. Piccilo fires a beam at me, not very powerful though. It bounces off my chest when I use my telekinesis to move it away. Heh, Piccilo seems pissed.

Then Piccilo flies right in front of me and starts kicking and punching furiously. I dodge every attack. "So… you think it's about time I fight back?" "Give me all you've got!" so be it. I move so fast he can't track me and I punch him in the stomach.

"OOOF!" Piccilo keels over. I smack my elbow into his neck and he drops to the ground. Piccilo tries to uppercut me but I just tilt my head back and the fist misses my jaw. "It's no use Ma Junior, you're strong, but you're no match for me." I say addressing him by his fake name. I then pick him up and throw him out of the ring.

"NUMBER NINE WINS! NEXT MATCH! GOHAN VERSUS VEGITA!"

I walk into the fighter's corner and watch Vegita and Gohan walk into the ring.

"You cannot beat me child." Vegita says. Gohan remains silent. "READY? FIGHT!" Gohan goes into a defensive stance and Vegita leaps into the air. "FALL!" Vegita yells at Gohan as he kicks at him. His foot goes right through the stone when Gohan dodges. "MASENKO!" "FINAL FLASH!" their beams meet each other. Vegita's 'Final Flash' slowly creeps up on Gohan and finally hits him. Yet, Gohan stays in the ring. Vegita dashes towards Gohan and starts kicking and punching rapidly. Gohan is forced to go on the defensive.

"COME ON GOHAN!" Chichi yells from the stands.

Gohan kicks Vegita in the face but Vegita smiles and hits Gohan right between the eyes while he's left open. Gohan flies backwards and Vegita clasps his hands together, hits Gohan, and then puts out his knee which Gohan hits as he falls.

"OOOF!" Vegita grabs Gohan by the hair and punches him in the face repeatedly and then flings him into the ring. "Uhn…" Gohan starts to get up slowly but Vegita kicks him in the head hard, knocking him out.

Vegita shouldn't have won that easily without going Super Saiyajin. The boy needs some more training.

"VEGITA WINS!" the crowd boos. Yamcha surrenders before he even fights Kakarotto.

"YAMCHA HAS SURRENDERED! NEXT FIGHT! TEINSHINHAN VERSUS NUMBER NINE!" We walk into the ring.

"Surrender." I tell him. "No." I shrug. "FIGHT!" Teinshinhan leaps at me and kicks, but I twist my torso and he misses. Then he punches from behind me, I block without looking. Teinshinhan then splits into four copies and attacks. I block all of their attacks with ease.

"It's time you lost." I say as I kick one clone in the head, rendering it unconscious. I fling another out of the ring, sock one more in the gut, and use a fraction of my telekinetic ki to push the last one out of the ring.

"NUMBER NINE WINS!" the crowd boos as I leave. I guess they liked Teinshinhan. "NEXT FIGHT! VEGITA VERSUS GOKU!" this one will be interesting.

"I will defeat you Kakarotto." "Don't be so sure Vegita." "FIGHT!" they run at each other. Vegita punches, Kakarotto ducks and tries to sweep Vegita off of his feet but he jumps over it and shoots a beam at Kakarotto which is dodged. This continues for a while. Damn, this battle is going to go on forever.

Then, Vegita finds a hole in Kakarotto's guard and punches him right in the jaw, Kakarotto reels back. Now Vegita takes control, he kicks Kakarotto in the chest, moves behind him, and ki blasts him at point blank. He then knocks Kakarotto down and starts machine gun ki blasting Kakarotto in the chest. All of a sudden, Kakarotto vanishes and reappears behind Vegita. "NAN DA?" Kakarotto kicks Vegita at the base of his skull and blasts him.

Vegita leaps out and yells out "BIG BANG ATTACK!" and a spherical beam shoots out at Kakarotto. Kakarotto blocks it but is pushed down unto the ring. Vegita holds out his hand, and lifts two fingers. The ground under Kakarotto explodes and he's flung into the air.

"HA!" Vegita kicks Kakarotto in the stomach and tries to punch him, but he grabs Vegita's hands. They land on the ring and start grappling.

Simutaniously, they turn Super Saiyajin. Kakarotto then drops himself to the ground and slides under Vegita between his legs. "Eh?" Kakarotto kicks Vegita in the back of his head while still holding on to his arms. Vegita flies back, but is then slammed into the ground by Kakarotto.

Two feet shoot up into Kakarotto's stomach and he flies up into the air holding his stomach. Vegita then flies out of the ground and shoots straight at Kakarotto head first. Right before Vegita hits, Kakarotto moves to the side and knees Vegita right under his ribs, knocking the air out of him.

While still clutching his stomach, Kakarotto kicks Vegita in the head, gut, upper torso, middle of the chest, and then in head again.

Then, Kakarotto lets go of his stomach and wraps his arms around Vegita instead. What's he doing? Kakarotto then starts flying straight down into the ground outside of the ring using Vegita as a body shield.

Right before he hits, Vegita breaks free and ki blasts Kakarotto the rest of the way down.

"I… I won!" Vegita stammers. "Huff… huff…" Kakarotto is grasping his heart.

"VEGITA WINS!" the crowd goes crazy. Yeah, it was one hell of a fight.

"What's wrong with you Kakarotto?" "Uh… ah… nothing Vegita." "Don't lie to me!" "I'm really fine Vegita! You won! Good fight!" Vegita still seems skeptical. I don't fully believe that either.

"NOW THE FINAL FIGHT! NUMBER NINE VERSUS VEGITA!" Vegita doesn't drop out of Super Saiyajin mode, and I walk into the ring while discarding my trench coat. Vegita's power hasn't dropped at all, that Super Saiyajin thing sure is something.

"What do you have in store for me, tin can?" he asks me. "Enough to keep you busy Vegita." I respond. We both fall into offensive fighting stances.

"FIGHT!" we fly at each other. Vegita punches at me, I duck and kick at his stomach, he dodges and I fling an elbow at his face which he blocks. Leaping into the air I shoot off several quick ki beams and dash back at him. None of the beams do damage, but my shoulder slams into his jaw. Then I take a knee into my stomach in return, but then I punch Vegita several times in his face, knocking him away.

Vegita flies straight up into the air and starts his machine gun attack again. All of the beams are weak, since he's firing them so rapidly. They all bounce off of me and into the air.

"KISAMA!" Vegita shoots a stronger beam, but his aim was off and it hit's just at my feet and does no damage. Wait… his aim wasn't off. A cloud of smoke obscures my vision and Vegita's foot slams into my chest. I grab the foot as I fall and slam him into the ground. Vegita leaps up as quickly as he hit and shoots a beam right where my head was half a second ago.

I kick him in the back and he goes flying up into the air. Giving chase, I charge up ki in both of my hands. Vegita and I both start a machine gun attack at the same time. Unfortunately, Vegita is more adept at the technique than I am and some of his beams break through, but I use my telekinesis to keep those ones at bay.

Finally, I just take a few of those beam and concentrate on a bigger one. "BLOODY ERASER!" my beam swallows all of Vegita's smaller beams and hits Vegita.

The smoke clears, and I see Vegita with his arms crossed in cracked armor and a tattered jumpsuit. He glares at me. "So ka…?" Vegita vanishes and I feel his fist slam into my jaw. I just backhand him. But then his foot hits my back, I kick him in the head. "HA!" Vegita and I start a rapid series of punches and kicks. But Vegita slowly overcomes me. Damnit.

Vegita's knee hits my jaw and his fist goes wrist deep into my stomach. I ki blast him in the face, but he then head butts me. I kick his ribs, breaking a couple, but Vegita grabs my throat and slams me into the ring, making yet another crater in it.

Before I retaliate, Vegita lifts me up and throws me off to the side. I stop myself, but then Vegita clasps his hands together and hit's me on the back, making my fly straight down. And out of bounds.

"VEGITA IS THE WINNER OF THIS YEAR'S TENKAI BUDOKAI!" the announcer yells out.

Vegita walks off with a limp. Well he better, after the fight Kakarotto gave him and then the one I gave him.

As Vegita nears the exit, he grins and then falls out of Super Saiyajin. He drops onto the ground face first.

I get up as if I weren't injured and walk towards the exit.

Kakarotto still seems to be tired. I wonder what the hell is wrong with him? Paramedics pick up Vegita and carry him out in a stretcher. Bulma stops them. "I'll take him from here." and I walk over and pick Vegita up before they can argue. "Shall we all go then?" I ask everyone. They agree and we go to Capsule Corporation to celebrate.

Chapter 54

We're all in the living room. Well, except Vegita and Kakarotto. Bulma made up another tank some while ago, and now Vegita and Kakarotto are both in their respective tanks.

"You look pretty torn up, why don't you go in a tank next?" Bulma asks. "Nah. I can't feel pain anyway. Time will heal my body." I respond. Besides, Gohan should get it before I do.

Krillin hands me a drink, and I thank him and take a swig. He and Yamcha seem to be staring at me. "What?" I ask. Now they seem surprised. Hey… I feel a bit woozy. "What the hell is this?" "Alcohol." "… how strong?" "180 proof…" they mutter. "WHAT!" the others yell out.

"Damn, no wonder I feel slightly tired…" I say. Krillin and Yamcha's jaws drop. "Only SLIGHTLY tired!" they exclaim. "Alcohol has little effect on me." "But…" man, the looks on their faces is worth them trying to trick me like this. I finish the drink.

"What the hell were you two thinking!" Bulma screams. "Well, alcohol never seemed to bother him, so we wanted to know how much he can take…" Yamcha says sheepishly. I start laughing. "HAHAHA! Good luck trying to drug me! I was MADE to not be effected by drugs of any sort!" I inform them. Now everyone looks at me. "Damn straight!" I confirm for them.

After the small party, everyone who doesn't live here leaves. Well, except for Kakarotto, Chichi, and Gohan. Kakarotto and Vegita are still in their tanks, and Chichi and Gohan won't leave without Kakarotto.

I walk in and check up on the two Saiyajins. Well, at least they're awake. Kakarotto doesn't seem to mind too much, but Vegita has the look of 'let me out or I'll rip your head off' plastered all over his face.

They look healed, so I pull them out. These tanks don't have timers. "Are you going to explain what was wrong with you?" I ask Kakarotto. "What? Nothing was wrong with me." he responds. Kakarotto is a horrible liar. "Whatever. Chichi wants to take you home, so get your clothes on." I inform Kakarotto. Vegita already dressed in his torn up armor.

As Kakarotto leaves, Vegita stares after him. After a bit, Vegita leaves off to who knows where. I exit the room as well.

Strange, Kakarotto's power remained the same while Vegita's went up to a maximum of 2,000,000.

"Here's your sword." Bulma hands me my sword. Almost forgot she was holding on to that. Almost.

"Hey, #9?" "What?" "Why does the blade have 'Hachigou' inscribed on it?" "Nothing I'll tell." I respond to her question.

She looks at me for a second, as if demanding an answer, but instead she asks "What metal is used for that sword?" "It's not of this planet. The metal is very strong and is a good conductor for ki. I forgot the name, but it's not pronounceable in English anyway." I tell her.

I then leave and go over to Kami's Palace.

"Why hello #9." "Hello Kami." I greet him. "Hey, Kami, know what was wrong with Kakarotto?" "Kakaro- oh! You mean Goku?" "Yes." "Well, really, I don't know." Damn. "So even the God of this planet can't figure it out." "Hey, I haven't been able to read into your mind either." he reminds me.

"I'd like to know what was wrong with Goku as well." Piccilo says from behind Kami. "I really have no idea…" Kami says. "There really is something wrong with him." I state. "First, for whatever reason, he tired out and remained so for the rest of the tournament until he came out of the regeneration tank. Second, he didn't get a power increase." "He didn't? I never noticed." "I did. Not even a single point." I confirm. "Nothing we can do but wait…" Kami says. Sometimes even Gods can do nothing but watch…

Chapter 55

I wake up the next morning and stretch. Soon as I get a clean set of my usual clothing on, I go into the living room.

Hmm… Bulma isn't up yet. And Vegita isn't in the gravity chamber. Whatever…

I'll just go over to Kakarotto's house. Maybe if I bother him enough, I'll get an answer.

Soon as I land, Gohan spots me and walks over. "Is Kakarotto here?" "Oh, my dad?" "Yeah." "Yes, but don't bother him." "Why not?" "He's not feeling well." Gohan tells me. I lift an eyebrow in skepticism. "Saiyajins rarely get sick. Now that I think about it… I've NEVER seen a Saiyajin who's sick." well, except for whatever happened to Bardock. Gohan shrugs. I leave and go back to Capsule Corporation.

"Hi #9." Bulma greets. "Hello." "Where are you coming back from?" "Kakarotto's house. He's sick." I tell her. "Sick?" "Yeah." "I've never seen Goku sick in my life." "Yeah, I thought it was strange too. Up until now, I hadn't ever seen a sick Saiyajin." I inform her.

"Kakarotto's ill?" Vegita asks from somewhere behind me. "Yeah. Any idea how?" "Bakana." Vegita says. "Saiyajins never become ill." Vegita tells us. "Then it has to be serious…" I say.

"We'll pay him a visit then." Bulma says. "BRRRIINNG!" Bulma picks up the phone. "Hello?" "…Really? Ok, we'll be right over." she hangs up.

"What was that about?" I ask. "And what do you mean 'we'?" Vegita asks as well. "That was Chichi. She says Goku is very sick and wants us over." I shrug.

Instead of flying with her plane, Vegita carries Bulma. That's weird. Damn, what's up with this world? We make it to Kakarotto's house shortly.

A grim Chichi opens the door. "Come in…" we walk in and go to Kakarotto's room.

To see him is almost nauseating. Very pale, like he's Super Saiyajin, yet he's not. Sweating profusely and clutching his heart. Kakarotto is very ill. And his power has spiraled down to almost nothing.

"What the hell is wrong with you Kakarotto?" Vegita asks, well, more like demands. "M… must be something I got from… Yardrat…" "Why not get some of those senzu beans?" I ask. Kakarotto weakly holds up a bag of those beans. "They don't help much…" shit.

"I think… I think I might die…" "Don't speak like that Goku!" Bulma says in horror. Vegita scowls.

"What's wrong with you?" "It's… m…my heart… hurts…" Kakarotto barely says. Bulma walks out of the room in tears.

I stand over Kakarotto. "You've accomplished much in your life Kakarotto. It's very sad to see you go out this way." Kakrotto grins in his usual goofy manner. Heh, least that will always remain.

"Your father, your real Saiyajin father, would be proud of you." I tell him. Kakarotto looks up at me "Really…?" "Yes. Avenging the Saiyajin race by defeating Freeza. Becoming one of the strongest. And, unlike most Saiyajin, he'd probably also be proud of you being able to gain a family and live happily." I respond. Vegita grunts.

"W…who was my father…?" "His name was Bardock. Only a first class soldier, nothing that special. But he was also a technician. A very smart man he was. He looked just like you. I don't know what went wrong, but he became mentally ill or something. He was convinced that Freeza would kill all of the Saiyajins. So Bardock gathered all the warriors he could and attempted an attack on Freeza himself. He lost, and Vegitasei was destroyed. Even if he was insane, he was very brave to do that foolish thing." I explain. Even Vegita seemed interested. Kakarotto smiles.

Gohan walks in. "Daddy, you'll get better, right?" Gohan asks. Nobody says anything. Chichi walks in as well. "I'll… miss you all…" Kakarotto says as the last of his energy dwindles to nothing.

He is now dead. "DADDY!" Gohan cries. Chichi follows suit.

"It'd be time we leave Vegita." I tell him. He follows me out.

"What happened?" a red eyed Bulma asks me. "He's dead." I respond. She cries some more. Vegita just keeps walking and leaves the house. I think crying annoys him. Nothing left in here. I leave as well.

"What's happening?" Krillin asks as he, Yamcha, Teinshinhan, and Chaozu land. "Kakarotto died." Vegita says coldly. "What!" they rush in.

Vegita seems pissed. Even he's affected. "I will never have the chance to best him…" "You beat Kakarotto at the Tenkai Budokai." "No, he was weakened by his sickness. I was cheated." Vegita leaves. Now Vegita has to face the same problem I did, and still do to an extent. Lack of direction.

Bulma walks out. "Where's Vegita?" "He left, probably to relieve frustration." I inform her. "He seemed so healthy…" Bulma says, reffering to Kakarotto. "Yes, that's how disease works. It's a horrible way to die. Kakarotto at least deserved a warriors death." I respond.

Bulma looks at me "Why do you keep calling him 'Kakarotto'?" "It's his birth name." I say. "Why aren't you affected?" she asks me. "I am affected, I just don't show it." "Why?" "Why should I?" I throw back.

Vegita comes back. "Let's get out of here Vegita." I say. He grabs Bulma and we all head back to Capsule Corporation.

It is a sad day indeed. The word spreads fast and everyone is morose. At one point, I find I nice rock formation and destroy it. Just to let out some steam. I fly up to Kami's Palace. Piccilo's there too.

"I assume you two know." "Yes…" Kami says. "Now we know what was wrong with Goku." Piccilo says. Nothing is said for a long while.

A few days later…

We all attend the funeral. Some are in black suits, others are just in plain clothing. I'm one of the people in their usual clothing. But nobody really cares about the clothes. The funeral is what you'd expect, family members and friends weep while others like Vegita and I show no emotion whatsoever.

I end up spending a lot of time at Kami's Palace. It's a good place to think and just kill time. This one though, wasn't much more than another person. I'm sad that Kakarotto died, of course, but I don't feel as bad as when it was #8. I guess it's just that I was a lot closer to #8. More like when I found out the death of Radditz or when I watched Bardock die. But it's slightly stronger than that. Kakarotto is just a man who sticks with you.

"Are you going to live here?" Kami jokes lightly, trying to heighten my mood. I grin half-heartedly. "Not yet." I respond. "What bothers you so greatly? I know it isn't just Goku alone." "Kakarotto's death just has me thinking of other things." "Like?" "The deaths of other people I knew." "So that's why you hadn't shown any emotion." I stare at Kami. "Yeah. I guess you can say that, watching friends die and clearing hundreds of planets makes you immune to breaking down in tears." I reply after a little bit.

"Is that what's been bothering you all this time you've been on Earth?" I get up. "Ja na, Kami." I leave.

At least Bulma isn't crying when I arrive at Capsule Corporation. "Where were you?" "At Kami's Palace, thinking. Why are you always curious about my whereabouts?" "Just curious. It also gives me something else to think about." I shrug. That pisses Bulma off.

"Why the hell are you and Vegita taking this so damned casually!" she screams. ARGH! Nobody may notice, but this has been really annoying me! Fine, she wants to know why! I'll tell her why. "You want to know why?" "Yes." "We have experience. That's why." I say harshly. "What?" Bulma now seems confused. I continue in a harsh manner.

"First of all, Vegita was brought up to not pay attention to the emotions you do. Of course, I'm different. But another thing, do you have any idea how familiar we are with death?" Bulma shudders. "Not only have we killed millions with our very own hands, we have watched comrades die. I've watched friends die, I've been forced to kill friends. And Vegita, who doesn't show those feelings anyhow due to his upbringing, lost his home planet. And pretty recently I might add. Does that answer your question?" I ask Bulma. She nods. I start to leave, but Bulma stops me.

"Does it get easier each time?" Bulma asks meekly. "What?" "When you watch someone die. Especially a friend, does it get easier to deal with each time?" "Not really." I respond. I leave again and Bulma doesn't stop me.

I enter my room and lock the door. Well… this has turned out just dandy! I sigh and lay on my bed. Well, this is the price of being a mercenary, seeing everyone die. But I'm not a mercenary anymore, and Kakarotto didn't die at the hands of the enemy.

This is actually impacting me greatly. I've watched millions of people die, and killed millions of people myself. I've seen comrades fall, I've killed comrades. But to see the impact of death on the victim's friends and family… That, is what is truly saddining.

Chapter 56

One month later…

Everyone's gotten out of their state of moroseness. Sure, they'll never fully recover, but at least they aren't moping around everyday.

Also, this has to be the most shocking announcement. Bulma is pregnant. Which in itself, isn't too surprising. But the father is Vegita! That even I found surprising. I simply had no clue of that happening.

Vegita is still a bit morose though. He has no direction. I commonly see him sitting on the roof of Capsule Corporation, just thinking.

Chichi and Gohan seem to have the most problems getting over Kakarotto, which makes sense. I don't see Chichi often, but whenever I see Gohan, he doesn't have that cheerfulness he had before. No trace of it at all. That kid took it hard.

Bulma, while she still misses Kakarotto, has the future to look too. She has gotten on with her life.

Yamcha is pissed as hell. He's gotten on with his life completely, and is now pissed at Vegita. Heh. Well, you snooze you lose.

Krillin is still saddened over Kakarotto's death. He's become rather quiet and shy now.

Piccilo seems to be just fine. Then again, it's hard to tell since he has a poker face that even rivals Vegita's. And Kami is busy at work being God.

But I never see Teinshinhan or Chaozu. Nor so I see Roshi often either.

Overall, things are pretty much back to normal. Of course, I have as much direction as Vegita does. And I'm running out of things to occupy myself with quickly. I find myself looking over the edge of Kami's Palace more often as each day passes by.

What have I left to do? There's nothing to fight. Only Vegita rivals me but he's not really interested in a fight anymore. It's almost as if he's lost his will to live. But he still exercises in the gravity chamber at least. And if I leave this planet, where would I go? After the demise of Freeza the market for mercenaries has slowed down greatly. At least I have a home here.


	8. Chapter 8

PART VIII: INVISIBLE MEN AND TWIN TERRORS

One year later…

**Name: #9**

**Power Level: 1,975,000**

**Side note: Has stopped growing in height. No longer needs**

**maintenance. Still ages. Is now physically about 24 years old. Has now been alive for about 23 years.**

**Name: Vegita**

**Normal Power Level: 800,000**

**Power Level at Super Saiyajin: 2,100,000**

**Name: Krillin**

**Power Level: 90,000**

**Name: Gohan**

**Power Level: 700,000**

**Name: Piccilo**

**Power Level: 1,500,000**

**Name: Teinshinhan**

**Power Level: 85,000**

**Name: Yamcha**

**Power Level: 80,000**

Chapter 57

Vegita finally got out of his moroseness a while ago. Bulma also had her child, but Vegita paid little attention. What a surprise.

Later, Vegita seemed to pay some attention to his kid, who was named Trunks, after he saw Trunks has great fighting potential. I think that's what brought Vegita away from his moping. He has something to do.

I get up and turn on the TV in the living room while ignoring Vegita who's in the fridge. Feh, all of these stupid soap operas are such a waste. I turn it to a news channel, what TV should be ment for.

"News Flash! Penguin Village has been destroyed. We do not know how it has happened, but it is now wrecked. We will come back with more news later."

Huh! Why didn't I notice? I check the direction towards Penguin Village. There's a large 'hole' of no kis. "What's wrong?" Bulma asks me while holding Trunks. "Some place called Penguin Village was destroyed." "What?" "Yeah. But I didn't notice any type of power charge required to do that…" I mutter. "I'm going." I get up. "What about you Vegita?" I ask. "I don't care for the lives of this planet. I'm quite surprised you do." he replies. "I don't. I just want to know why I didn't notice it." I leave.

Ten minutes later. Piccilo, Krillin, and I are here. "You guys found out too?" I ask. "I saw it on the news." Krillin responds. Piccilo grunts. "Did you guys feel anything?" Krillin asks. "No." Piccilo and I reply. Strange.

We know it had to be someone proficient in ki manipulation just by the level of destruction… unless the world has started nuking itself.

I see a movement out of the corner of my eye. Looking down, I spot two floating figures I don't recognize. One tall and sort of slim, the other fat. "Hey, guys." I whisper and point at the two figures. "Let's check it out." Piccilo orders.

We move in rapidly and surround them. "Who are you?" I ask. The tallest one turns around. I see his face. "Gero!" I reel back in surprise. "You know him?" Piccilo asks. "What the hell? How-?" I barely manage to say.

"I am not 'Gero'. I am Number Twenty and I am in search of Son Goku." Gero says to us all. Krillin and Piccilo stare at me. "N-number Twenty!" I stutter. This is too much.

"Who is he!" Piccilo demands of me. I ignore him. #20 looks at Piccilo. "Piccilo, you are no match." he looks at Krillin "Krillin, you are no match." he then looks at me "Number Nine. Power undefined." Gero finishes. I can't read any of their powers. Must be a different version.

It's obvious now, they're androids.

"ANSWER ME!" Piccilo yells. "Just prepare for a fight." I respond. I notice that Gohan has arrived. "Who are those guys?" he asks. Teinshinhan, Chaozu, and Yamcha appear shortly after.

I lift my hand and fire a beam at Gero. He dodges with ease. "This time, I will give you no mercy!" I growl at him. The others stare at me as if I'm insane. I don't care. "Where is Son Goku?" he asks again. "Fuck you Gero!" I reply.

"So be it." Gero dashes at me and we start fighting all out. The fat one grins and attacks the others.

Gero hasn't hit me yet. I kick him in the throat, which didn't damage him. Expecting that, I leap back before he can get a hold on me. He fires a beam at me, I block with ease. After a long while of fighting with him, I notice that I'm actually much stronger than him. Gero notices too.

"DIE!" I kick him in the head, he reels back. "Number Nineteen!" he calls out. I get head butted right in my back. "What the?" I spin around and kick #19 back. "SWOOSH!" I turn around, but Gero is gone. "DAMN YOU!" I yell at #19. He grins, and I charge up a beam and blow his fool head off.

"Who was that?" Krillin asks me. I sigh. "Dr.Gero. A scientist who worked for the Red Ribbon army. He is who created me. Apparently he turned himself into an android as well." I tell them all. "Why do you want him to die if he created you?" Gohan asks innocently. "Because he didn't ask me if I wanted to be an android. I don't know much of my past life, but I do know I was human and that I didn't want to become what I am." I reply.

"I'm following him. He's probably heading for his laboratory. If he hasn't moved it, I'll find it in no time." I take off and the others follow me shortly afterwards.

There! I see movement in the canyon walls. "DIE!" I shoot a beam down. Gero flies out and shoots away from me at full speed. "No you don't!" I give chase. As fast as I am, Gero manages to keep ahead of me. As well as dodge my attacks. Damn him…

He is heading for the same laboratory though. The doors open and Gero shoots in. Then the doors close as I land. "Hmph!" I go to the keypad and start typing in the code.

"ERROR" the panel flashes at me. "DAMNIT!" I smash the panel. "What now?" Chaozu asks. "Just watch…" I charge up my sword and stab it right between the doors.

"HA!" I blow the doors apart. Then, I see Gero holding some remote control and two teenage androids, one male and one female, standing at attention.

"What is this Gero?" I ask. "Numbers Seventeen and Eighteen, attack them!" Gero orders. All of a sudden, the male android grabs that remote from Gero. "I don't think so…" he crushes the remote. I smile, reminds me a lot of #8 and I several years back.

"What are you doing #17?" Gero asks the male android. #17 decapitates Gero. His head rolls in front of me. "NO! You're still malfunctioning!" Gero's head says. I sneer and crush it under my boot.

"Well, what do we have here?" the other android asks, I assume she's #18. #17 turns to us. "Well, it looks like five warriors. One green martian, a bald monk, a triclops, a pale doll, and a kiless wonder!" #17 answers.

"Well, what do we do now?" #18 asks of #17. "I dunno. Might as well carry out our programming." #17 glances at us "Where's Son Goku?"

"Why do these guys want Goku?" Chaozu asks Teinshinhan. "He's dead." Piccilo answers. "What a shame." #17 mutters. "Now what sis?" "I dunno. How about havoc and destruction?" "Sounds like fun!" #17 exclaims.

Everyone behind me except Piccilo looks at each other nervously. I stare at #17. "Why not come with me?" I offer. Hey, it sounds better than destruction. "Nah, destruction has got to be more fun. How about you join us?" #18 throws back.

I sigh and pull out my sword. "You aren't going to wreck this planet." "Oh? And you're going to stop us with that toothpick?" #17 mocks. "Yeah, I am." #17 and #18 attack our group. I engage with #17 and ignore the other one.

SHIT! He's strong. I don't know how strong, but possibly stronger than me. "Tell me, can you feel pain?" #17 questions. "Nope." I kick him in the chest and he flies backwards. "Ok. Just curious." he shoots a beam at me, which I barely block and I reply with a cresent beam that misses. His fist hits my face and I knee him in the stomach. #17 just punches me again and I flip him into the ground.

"PICCILO!" I hear Gohan scream. His power rises drastically. Maybe he went Super Saiyajin or something. I get distracted and #17 slams me into the wall. "Concentrate on me." I head butt #17 and stab him through the chest.

"I bet that'd hurt if I could feel pain." #17 says in a bored tone and shoots a very strong beam at me. This time I can't block and I go flying right out of the laboratory. #17 follows and pummels me in the torso. I hit him right back. "You're good, but I'm the strongest!" #17 says as he flies into the air. I charge up a Bloody Eraser.

#17 then starts a powerful machine gun attack. "BLOODY ERASER!" I fire my beam which hits #17 right on. He has to be injured badly after that…

The smoke clears and #17 is floating inside of some sort of clear bubble which disappears. He then resumes his machine gun attack. I try my best to block or dodge them all, but the blasts are too fast, too many, and too strong to easily repel. I get severly cut up, and that last beam drained a lot of power.

"SHI-NE!" I swing my blade shooting a cresent beam. #17 bats it away. "Hmm… you're good, but flawed. That beam was weaker than it could have been. You don't have infinte energy." "Infinite energy?" "Yes. I, as well as my sis, can fire as many beams as we want for as long as we want." Damn…

"You've been amusing, but it's time I end this." #17 machine gun blasts me at point blank range until my body can't hold out any more and I shut down.

Chapter 58

I wake up. Damn… what's happened here? The surrounding area is leveled and the laboratory is mostly destroyed. My power has risen to 2,050,000.

"Piccilo…" I hear Gohan mutter. I walk over and arrive just in time to see Gohan's hair fade away from gold and go back to normal. "Gohan. What's our situation?" I demand of him. "#9! I thought that other guy killed you!" "Not quite. Situation?" "Uh… ah… we didn't get 'em." Gohan says. "Okay…" that wasn't exactly what I was looking for. A more descriptive answer would be nice. "Who's injured and or dead?" I ask. "Piccilo is dead. I think Chaozu is too… I can't find Teinshinhan either…" Gohan's face is the ultimate visage of sadness. "Kuso…" I mutter and look to the horizon. Fire seems to fill the sky.

"Let's go to Capsule Corporation Gohan." I say. Gohan nods and we leave.

"What's going on?" Bulma asks me as we land. "Know Dr.Gero?" "Of course!" "Well, he made some more androids and all hell is breaking loose. Many people have died." I tell her.

"Honto?" Vegita asks. "Yeah." Vegita leaves. "Just wanted to make sure they haven't hit here. I suggest you call up your friends and that you all get the hell out of here." I say. "What?" "The androids already killed Piccilo and Chaozu. Teinshinhan is missing, possibly dead. This is serious shit and the area will probably be a warzone shortly." I leave her with those words.

"What about me?" Gohan asks as I leave. "Go with Bulma. Chichi would want you back alive." I say and take off after Vegita.

When I arrive, Vegita, already in Super Saiyajin, and #18 are fighting in the middle of a highway. I'm not noticed yet and I spot #17 below me. Heh, perfect. I charge up my Bloody Eraser. As soon as I fire, #17 looks up. "NANI KUSO!" and he's winged by my beam.

"You again… I thought I killed you." "Nah. I'm made of sterner stuff!" #17 grins. "Shall we continue then?" "Of course." we start fighting again.

We end up fighting among #18 and Vegita. This highway is getting pretty torn up. All of a sudden, Vegita slams into me. "Watch where you're going!" Vegita yells. Two beams hit us both.

I fight on, but Vegita is stunned. "DIE!" I fling a very powered up crescent shaped beam from my sword. #17 is flung to the ground and it cuts through the mountain ahead of us.

"HAHA! Very good! I guess I should fight seriously, ne?" "Fight seriously?" "Hai!" #17 slams his fist into my face and I fly backwards. I kick at #17's gut as he flies at me again, but he disappears and his foot connects with my back.

"SHIMATTA!" Vegita screams. #17 barely misses my skull with his fist but then I get kicked in the torso. Flying up, I start shooting dual beams, but none connect with #17. I leap back and land on a moving truck. #17 catches up quickly and lands. We engage in a string of kicks and punches. #17 easily overcomes me.

"KISAMA!" I scream and let loose my 'ki bomb'. Basically, my suicide move where I release my ki in an explosive manner with no direction. #17 is flung back and slams into the ground. But he is uninjured.

#17 looks at me for a second, then turns around and watches the battle with #18 and Vegita. He's ignoring me! "He's almost dead you know." #17 says without turning towards me. He's right. Vegita, while fighting ferociously, is weakening.

Then #18 shoves her fist through Vegita's chest. "Ah… ah… no…" #18 grins. "Can't… die… yet…" blood starts to dribble out of Vegita's mouth. "I beg to differ." #18 says coolly. Vegita tries to say something, but he only gurgles blood. "Aw… did my sis break her new toy?" #17 says mockingly.

"What about him?" #18 points at me. "Oh yeah." #17 turns towards me and I prepare myself for the fight of my life. "Wait!" "Huh? Why?" #17 is confused. "Let him live for now." "Why should I?" "I like him." #17 lifts an eyebrow, then grins. #18 smacks him upside the head. "Not that way, baka. I like him because he's one of us. An android, no matter how outdated. He's part of our family, and we don't kill family, at least, not right away…" #18 grins. #17 shrugs "Fine." then they both leave.

They SPARED me? I was SPARED! Anger boils inside of me. No… there are more important matters. Like the news of Vegita's death. I pick up his body and carry it to Capsule Corporation.

Chapter 59

"What happened!" Bulma asks once she sees Vegita and I. "I thought I told you to leave." "Everyone else left." "So? You leave too." "I demmand to know what happened!" I drop Vegita carefully.

"I told you, they're powerful. I can't stop them and neither could Vegita. I was lucky to escape with my life." I answer her. "What are you doing with Vegita?" "Giving him the most proper funeral I can." I then incinerate him. "Where'd everyone go?" I ask. "To Roshi's Island." "Then get in your plane and go." I order her. She actually listens this time and leaves, but not tearlessly. Since Piccilo's dead, Kami's dead too. So Vegita's dead for good. Argh, didn't we just get over that with Kakarotto?

Bulma leaves in her plane. I look towards the towns, doesn't seem to be much happening right now. I sigh. I've been sighing a lot lately. Nowhere to go. I go to Kami's Palace. Why? I don't know, just felt like it.

"Kami-sama!" I hear Mr.Popo cry in anguish. Never talked to Mr.Popo much, but I know he's devoted and doesn't deserve to lose his friend. I look over the edge. Here and there I see small flames, showing where those two androids are at. They're destroying this planet, and there's not a damned thing I can do about it.

"DAMNIT!" I scream at the world.

Chapter 60

It's been three weeks since the appearance of #17 and #18. I relocated to Roshi's island as well, but still go to Kami's Palace often. From Kami's Palace, I can watch what is happening, keep an eye on this world. Not to mention it's an excellent training area.

Right now, the 'twin terrors' are leaping quickly from area to area. They made short work of the rest of the world, but they seem to like Japan. Or hate it…

While they just flat out leveled the rest of the planet, the two anroids seem to enjoy toying with Japan. They will go town to town, toying with the people. It's a sad sight indeed. Bulma ought to be glad she listened to me, two days ago, Hope City, which also includes Capsule Corporation, was attacked.

Bulma now wants to go back. That's fine, they probably won't come back to Hope City for a while anyway.

"Let's go!" Bulma cries out. I turn away from the ocean. "Goodbye and good luck!" Roshi calls out as she goes to her plane. While Roshi is a pervert, he is also cares more than he lets on through his perverted demeanor.

Chichi also boards the plane. The plane is somewhat packed, but not overly so. Not many valubles were taken in such a short amount of time. "Meet you there!" Bulma yells out to Gohan and I.

"Ready?" I ask Gohan. He nods and we fly to Capsule Corporation.

Ten or so minutes later…

Gohan and I land in the back yard area of Capsule Corporation. "We're going to have to train hard to beat those androids. Follow me Gohan." I say shortly after we land. Gohan looks at me curiously. I lead the child inside the gravity chamber. "Wow… I've always wondered what it's like in here…" "Not too special though." "Yeah, but Vegita would never let me in." I laugh lightly. "He wouldn't huh? Should've asked me, I would have let you in. It is my chamber after all." "Honto?" "Yeah. Bulma gave me the specs to it and I built it." I respond.

"Well, how about we start at 20G?" I ask. Gohan shrugs. As the gravity slowly increases to 20, Gohan seems noticably strained. "You'll get used to it shortly. You should definatly be able to take well over 20G, this is just to get you used to the chamber." I tell him. Gohan starts some warm up exercises. "So…" Gohan starts inbetween push ups "when are we… gonna… spar?" "Not now since Bulma and your mother will be here shortly. Besides now, whenever you feel ready." I respond.

"What… do we do… for now?" "Train." "But they… are killing… people." "What else can we do? Fighting them now would practically be suicide." Gohan frowns. That frown looks strange on Gohan. It just doesn't fit.

"Sometime soon I'll go and see what I can find at Gero's lab. Maybe I can find a way to kill the cyborgs." I continue. Gohan's face brightens up at that.

"GOHAN!" Chichi yells from outside. I turn off the gravity and we leave. "There you are! What were you two doing?" Chichi looks at me. "I was just getting Gohan used to the gravity chamber." Chichi glares at me. "Why would that be? You certantly don't plan to send my son out to fight, do you?" "Mom…" Gohan complains. "Actually, I do." "WHAT!" "Chichi, clam down for a second." "YOU ARE GOING TO GET MY SON KILLED!" Chichi screams. "No. He will not fight until he is MUCH stronger. I would not send anyone but myself out on a suicide mission." Chichi looks at me skeptically.

"We're going home Gohan." "Why?" "Because we should get back. And you want dinner, don't you?" Gohan looks at Chichi with gleaming eyes. "Now that's my little boy." they both leave.

"What was that screaming about?" Bulma questions while holding Trunks. "Just Chich getting angery over that I want Gohan to help fight the androids." "I can't blame her. Gohan is only a child." "Child or not, all warriors are needed." I reply. Bulma looks thoughtful for a second. "What is going to happen now?" she asks.

"For now, we sit back and prepare. I'm also going to go to Dr.Gero's laboratory sometime within the next few days and see what I can salvage." I inform Bulma.

"By the way Bulma." "Yes?" "Trunks seems to have fighting potential…" I start. "Oh no you don't!" "All fighters are needed. I want to train him to be able to fight." "My son will not fight!" "Would you rather the world is destroyed?" Bulma stares at me. "Oh fine! It's not like I could stop you anyway. But I still don't like it!" "Good enough." I reply.

Aren't I slick? Pissing off two women within half an hour.

"Mind if I use your laboratory room?" "What for?" "An upgrade on myself." I tell her. THAT spikes her intrest. "Of course…" I just KNOW she's going to watch. "It's nothing big, just some programming upgrade." she follows anyway.

After about two hours, I've finished upgrading my built in scouter. Now I can read power levels that are much higher than before. "Intresting…" Bulma mutters when I'm done. I look for Gohan and check his power. 1,700,000. Not bad at all. Bulma walks off to put Trunks in bed.

Now that I think about it, I'm not sure at all exactly how much Super Saiyajin increases your power by. It increased Vegita's more than it has Gohan's. I think that you get more power from it as you get more skilled and use the ability more. But I'm still not sure.

I lay on the couch and flip on the TV. Nothing but snow. I change channels, but I get the same result. Damn I'm bored.

Bulma walks in. "Why don't you tell me about yourself?" I look up. Is she psychic? Soon as I'm bored Bulma walks in and trys to get me to do something. Or maybe it's just that obvious.

"I've already told you about myself." I reply knowing damn well what she meant. "Tell me about what you wouldn't mention before." "Why?" "I'm curious." I sigh. "Would you want to tell people about Vegita's death?" I ask. "Not really. Why'd you ask that?" "Because it's the same case." I tell her.

"You'll always be bothered unless you tell someone." "Feh! And how should that help?" "I don't know. It just does." Bulma tells me. "Sounds like very foolish logic to me." "Fine! Be stubborn." Bulma doesn't leave though.

"Why must you know so badly?" "Because I'm curious what bothers you so much." "One would think you would've tried to hack my brain or something by now." "That's a good idea…" I roll my eyes.

"What is this? The 'bug the guy until he either caves or gets pissed and destroys something' logic?" I ask. "Pretty much. But you have to cave since there's nothing left to destroy." Bulma replies with a straight face.

"Okay, fine. It's obvious you won't leave me be. I'll tell you…" and I tell her in detail about my life since activation. Including my most impacting missions, everyone I've killed and watch be killed, and my death.

Many hours later…

I finish. Bulma is now pale and sad looking. "I had no idea…" "That's why I didn't want to talk." I reply as I get up and go to my room.

Locking the door, I lay down in my bed. All that talk has me thinking about it all again. How many people that I knew, as well as liked, have died? My computerized brain comes up with an answer quickly. About nine. Small number, large impact.

And now the same havoc I've seen during my mercenary work as well as created has returned and hit Earth.

Chapter 61

Four days later…

Not much left. I gaze over the remains of Dr.Gero's laboratory. Might as well check what's left. I drop down into the laboratory and go downstairs. Still destroyed. I keep going down until I hit an intact room.

Hmm… things are pretty rattled up down here, but mostly intact. Nothing is pertaining to the androids though. And this is the last floor. I do find out about something called 'Cell'. Sounds dangerous, so I find the canister with Cell and disintegrate it. That's taken care of.

Damnit! Nothing is left on the androids. What I'd really like is some specs on them so I could make some sort of self destruct device. But there's nothing of that sort left.

I sigh and return to Capsule Corporation.

"You're back early." Bulma says. "Nothing of value is left." I reply sadly. "Gohan's in the gravity chamber." Bulma informs me.

I was finally able to get Chichi to relinquish her hold on Gohan. While over protective, she eventually did listen to reason. Ever since then Gohan's been making a lot of progress. His power is now at 1,756,000 max.

"Konnichi Wa, Gohan!" I greet as I enter the chamber. "Hi #17!" Gohan greets back. I check the number on the console. 125G. I should upgrade this to about 500G so that I can get a challenge out of it again.

"Come on Gohan! You should be able to do better than this!" Gohan stops his exercises. "Lets try, say… 175G." "What! That's 50G more than I'm used to!" "Better adapt quickly then!" I crank it up. Gohan struggles to stand, but finally steadies himself.

"See, it wasn't so bad." Gohan walks towards me, slowly and bowlegged. "It's hard to walk…" "Move around until you adjust." Gohan walks around a bit. A few minutes later, he starts to walk normaly. Then he starts to exercise again. I do some exercising too.

An hour later…

Gohan's still exercising. Using my telekinisis, I start messing with the air currents inside the chamber.

"Hey!" some wind pushes him back. "How's there wind in here?" Gohan asks me. "I have magic powers…" another gust of wind pushes Gohan. "Stop it!" I stop.

"Gohan!" Bulma calls. Gohan leaves the chamber and I follow. "It's time for you to go home now." "Oh. Okay!" Gohan flies back home.

"He's making progress." I tell Bulma. "Already?" "Yes. He'll probably grow to become much more stronger than I will ever be." "You really think so?" "Of course. Saiyajins, half breeds or not, were born to fight." I reply.


	9. Chapter 9

PART IX: AN ENDLESS CHASE

One month later…

**Name: #9**

**Power Level: 2,275,000**

**Name: Vegita**

**Dead**

**Name: Krillin**

**Dead**

**Name: Gohan**

**Normal Power Level: 900,000**

**Power Level at Super Saiyajin: 2,000,000**

**Name: Piccilo**

**Dead**

**Name: Teinshinhan**

**Dead**

**Name: Yamcha**

**Dead**

Chapter 62

The android's latest attacks have been in towns near Hope City that were reconstructing. Hope City is obviously their next target. Just great.

"So what will you do?" Bulma asks. "Probably fight them." "But they'll probably kill you." "I'm stronger now, and I want to get a feel for their power. I'll come out alive." I reply. "I'm going to follow them for a while. I just may learn something from it." "Isn't that dangerous?" "I have no ki to sense. I'll be hard to spot." I reason.

I see an explosion in the horizion. Here they are… I speed out of Capsule Corporation.

#17 and #18 are toying with the people trying to escape. "HAHAHA!" #17 cackles as he shoots someone with a finger beam. I shoot a beam right at him.

"NANI!" #17 turns around. "You again! Long time no see!" "Long time no see indeed…" I reply. "You ready to die this time?" #17 asks as he rushes at me.

I start attacking at full power and #17 matches me easily. "You've gotten stronger." #17 says as he punches me in the face. I pull out my sword and stab at him rapidly. Nothing hits.

We continue for a while. After some time, I'm able to gauge his power at least 3,000,000. Probably more like 3,500,000 minimum considering he's toying with me.

"Ja na!" I yell and use a blinding ki blast on both androids. Then I hide in the debris of a building.

"KUSO! Where is he!" #17 screams out in anger. "Leave it be brother. We can beat him if he ever shows up again." #17 grumbles something. They leave and I stalk them.

Four weeks later…

I've been following them for a long while. Even engaging in quick battles with them every now and then. There seems to be no particular pattern in which they destroy things. And I find no weaknesses. This is going nowhere fast. But I do find out that there are other areas still mostly untouched.

#17 and #18 also seem to be treating me as some sort of toy. They find it amusing to fight me over and over again.

"We're heading for America tomorrow." #17 had said. There's no way that I can let them take out the small, untouched populations. Those are very important, considering they would still have services that could be spread. Like medical services. REAL medical services.

The next morning I engage them.

"Look who's back!" #17 exclaims with glee. "It's our android friend!" #18 says in the same tone. "Gee, you seem so happy to see me. Bored of killing the helpless?" "Sort of. It's fun to torture them, but there's no real challenge. At least we can get a decent spar out of you." #17 replies.

"How about you go sis? I fought him last time." "Okay." #18 steps up. They fight in a pretty similar manner, but I think #17 is a bit stronger.

"DIE!" I fly right at her and swing my sword. I miss but twist my body, intercepting her flight path with a kick to the face. She responds by punching me in the jaw and stomach. No matter how much I throw into my attacks, they're all blocked as if they were nothing.

"HA!" I shoot a strong crescent shaped beam, which is dodged. "SHI-NE!" #18 blocks my kick. We start a string of kicks and punches.

Then she gets serious. I get kicked and punched several times, I couldn't keep up. Two feet slam into my back and I fly into the ground. "HA!" I do a machine gun beam attack. None hurt her and she rapidly punches me in the face and stomach.

"Let's go sis." #17 calls, and they start to fly off. I get up and kick #18 right at the base of her spine. #18 turns around cooly and backhands me across the face. She then does her own machine gun attack.

Several blasts hit me, and the ones that miss destroy the ruins below us. I start a slower, more powerful version of a machine gun attack using crescent beams.

#18 blocks most of them, but she gets cut a few times. She sneers at me and shoots a powerful beam that I cannot dodge. I 'catch' it in both of my hands.

Very powerful beam. After several minutes of struggling, I'm able to shrug it off to the side.

When I look up, they're both gone. "DAMNIT!"

Chapter 63

Five months later…

I've been very unsucessful so far. Not only have I been unable to estimate where they will strike very well, but when I am correct I get my ass kicked.

Fifteen cities have now been destroyed. They could do it in a matter of days, but they want to drag it out. They don't want to be come bored.

"Crap…" I mutter as I lay in a pretty beat up bed. I made myself a temporary home in the ruins of some apartment building. One of the few still standing.

I'm glad I'm at least somewhat skilled at tailoring. My armor would have fallen apart long ago without those skills.

A map is pinned to the wall showing the locations of destroyed and undestroyed cities. Not all of them are correct, but it's the best I can manage. If I'm correct, they're most likely to attack a town about thrity miles from here by tomorrow.

I get up and go towards the twin's last know location. Within twelve minutes I'm there. "I told you he'd show up." I hear behind me. Turning around swiftly, I come almost face to face with the two androids.

"So, who do I fight today?" I ask. "Nah. I don't want to get into buisiness just yet." #17 says casually. "You keep fighting us all the time, but you keep losing. Why don't you join us? It's a lot of fun!" "I'll pass." "I told you he wouldn't listen either." #18 says dryly. "Tsk. Don't be so foolish." #17 tells me. I hold back the urge to spit on him. "Dr.Gero really made you good, you know. You're very persistant." #18 rolls her eyes and says "If you're not going to fight, I will." "No. I don't feel like fighting him today. I don't want you to either." I raise an eyebrow in confusion.

"What? Why?" #18 asks. "I want to burn down some more towns, and fighting him will only take time." #17 reasons. "You know, sometimes you actually make sense." they start to leave.

"NO!" I shoot a beam at them. #17 bats it away without effort. "Go and train or something." I fly straight at him. Right as I was about to punch his lights out, his hand appears right in my face and fires a beam.

I'm flung backwards and into a building. They leave. "Kuso…" it's insulting, to be discarded so easily. I try to track them down, but they're long gone by now.

So now what? Might as well try to help survivors or something.

Hours pass as I look for survivors in the surrounding area, but the androids were very thorough. I return to my temporary home.

I laugh darkly as I think of my current predicament. Two warriors from nowhere appear and dismantle the planet bit by bit. The few warriors that are a match attempt to stop the two, but fail. Sounds very familiar.

But now I'm not the intruder. Instead, I try to protect the planet as one of the few able warriors. How often have I gone through this scenario?

I drop down on the mattress. It's so futile. I've seen this scenario hundreds of times, and it always ended in the same way.

I shake my head. Shouldn't think like that, we have a chance. And I will fight until I drop.


	10. Chapter 10

PART X: THE LAST WARRIORS

Five years of chasing…

**Name: #9**

**Power Level: 3,375,000**

**New Characteristics: 25 years old physically. 28 years old**

**mentally. Armor and clothing in tatters. Hair is in a long pony tail that reaches to the middle of his back.**

Chapter 64

I have failed. Nothing remains of the once wide spread technological civilization. Cities lay in ruins, people slaughtered by the millions. And time and time again, I would be beat back during my futile attempts to stop those two androids.

I chased them through America, North and South. Europe, Asia, Africa, and back to Japan too. Hell, even Antartica. But all of those lands are in ruins. I'm going to return to Japan. Perhaps Bulma, Trunks, and Gohan still live.

No matter how much power I have obtained, the androids become stronger still. Estimated power of 3,500,000… HA! After reaching that level of power and yet more, one would think I could at least damage those androids. But they still bat me away, spare me, toy with me.

What does it take to take these twins down? I had even unleashed my newest and most powerful move upon them at full force. A devestating beam that explodes with the power of several nuclear devices. The androids walked out of the force of a thousand suns as if it were nothing. Actually, they started laughing once they saw I did their work for them. The city was no more. But that didn't matter, it was already wasted and gone and the survivors killed were probably sent off to a better place anyway.

I will leave, now.

Three hours later…

Hope City doesn't seem that much better off than it was when I left. I'd think they would have rebuilt themselves by now. #18 and #17 must have hit Japan during the times when I couldn't find them. And I found myself losing track of them much too often.

I see it! Capsule Corporation in the distance. The building is pretty damaged though, but still intact. I land at the front door and knock without even taking a look around for familiar kis. Bulma opens it and looks at me. "#9! I thought you were dead! Where the hell did you go!" "Happy to see you too." I walk in. "Answer me! Where have you gone for the past five years?" she asks me with a mix of some anger and happiness. "Remember what I said five years back? I told you, I was going to chase down those androids. I think that sums it up." I answer her. "For five years?" "Yeah." "What had posessed you to do that?" "One reason was to study the androids. Another was that I found out there were still cities that remained untouched." Bulma stares at me surprised. "Yes, it's true. I was doing my damnedest to protect those cities. The supplies obtainable from those cities would have helped greatly. But those two androids beat me to each city, and beat me each time. That is, if I even knew where to go." "Are there any left?" "Nope. At least none that I know of." Bulma looks down.

"Who's that?" I look behind Bulma and see some purple haired kid pointing at me. "An old friend of mine." she replied to the child. "Is that Trunks?" I ask, Bulma nods. "Has he been training?" "Yes." "With who?" "Gohan." I grin. "So he still lives. Good, I'll have to talk to him soon." "He should be in the gravity chamber." Bulma tells me. "But clean up first!" Bulma orders. "Why?" "Look at yourself!" "I haven't worried about my looks for years since I started chasing the androids, why should I start now?" Bulma grumbles at me.

I notice a small rise in the ki of Trunks. Looking over, I notice he's staring at me. Bulma notices too. "What's wrong Trunks?" she asks. "He's one of them… he doesn't have any ki…" he mutters. I laugh, which unnerves the boy. "Trunks, come over here and I'll explain who he is. And you" she points at me "go talk to Gohan." I shrug and leave.

That boy has a pretty high power for his age. Somewhere around 575,000. Not nearly enough to defeat the androids, but still high for his age. It shows that we have a chance. I walk into the gravity chamber.

Gohan is training vigorously. His power is at 3,145,000. Mine's higher probably because I've been fighting those twins almost constantly for a very long time.

Another change is age. Gohan is much taller, broader, and looks about seventeen. His hair is less wild than it used to be, and is spiked straight up.

He hasn't noticed me yet, he must have had the gravity off since it would have changed back to normal if it had been on.

"Gohan!" I yell out. He stops and looks at me. "#9? What happened to you?" he asks. "Been chasing those damn androids all these years." I reply. "Really? And you lived?" "Only 'cause they wanted to toy with me…" I mumble. Gohan seems to have heard. "They like to do that. It's sick." Gohan hit it right on.

I then take my first good look at Gohan's face and almost gasp in surprise. While happiness shows on his face right now, I can still see the darkness behind this fascade of joy. The happy boy with boundless energy I knew years ago has now been replaced with an older and darker version of him. Now that I think of it, Bulma's face seemed darker too. The whole world looks dark and bleak.

"Let's go inside." Gohan offers. I follow him into the house. Bulma greets us. I see Chichi sitting on the couch. "Hello Chichi." she turns to me. "You! I should smack you for convincing me to let Gohan train to fight those cyborgs all these years! Not to mention you just go off and disappear!" Chichi scolds and I grin. "You still haven't changed yet?" Bulma asks. "What will I change into?" "Your room is still the same." Bulma replies. She must have noticed the slight surprise on my face. "I never had any reason to clear out that room or to go through your stuff, no matter how little of it is there. Now go!" Bulma yells.

True to her word, my room is still the same and untouched. I brush some dust off of my spare armor and put it on. I change my pants and coat too.

After that, I return to the living room area. "So, how bad has this area been hit?" I ask them all. Bulma speaks up "We tried to rebuild, but the androids came back every once and a while, destroying all of our work. The city barely has enough to live off of." I grimace. "What's the rest of the world like?" Gohan asks me. "Not much better. In some cases, even worse. Especially due to radiation in some areas." I respond.

Years ago, when the world was still somewhat in one piece the world powers resorted to trying to nuke the twins to death once they took notice of the problem. All that was achieved was strong radiation in several parts of the world and leveled cities. Now the governments are no more.

"Is there still currency left here?" I wonder aloud. "No." Gohan answers for me. Much like the rest of the world. That must put a big hole in the New York Stock Exchange. Well, aside from that beam #17 flung at it.

We then talk for the rest of the day.

Chapter 65

It feels strange waking up in a comfortable bed after years of makeshift homes. Not that I'm complaining. I get up, dress, and go out into the kitchen area where anyone awake would probably be.

Sure enough, everyone else living here is up and eating. Even Gohan and Chichi. "Came here early, huh?" I ask Gohan. "Actually, we live here now." Gohan answers. I didn't expect that.

I skip the meal and wait for everyone else. Once they're done, Gohan and Trunks get up. "Ready for this morning's work?" Gohan asks Trunks. "Yeah!" Trunks replies. "Work?" "Each day when we're not training we usually work on rebuilding the area. Want to help?" Gohan asks. "Sure." I tell them.

"Be careful Gohan!" I hear Chichi yell out. I roll my eyes. What exactly can falling concrete do to him? Gohan notices my expression and grins. "Hasn't changed one bit I see." I throw out.

We fly inside of the city ruins and land in an area with a relatively small population of people. I'd say there might be just less than three thousand people here.

"We're here." Gohan tells us. Several cheap homes are placed all around and rubble is piled up on the sides of the area. People greet Gohan and Trunks happily.

"Let's get to work. Today we should try and build some trenches for water, get electicity from running water, and maybe work on getting a road to the nearest forest for food." Gohan orders.

The trenches are harder than one might think. I can't just use my power to cut a trench, but I need to make the trenches very precise so that I don't miss, or destroy accidentally, any homes. We get to work on that first.

When I start working, people point and gasp at me. "He can do that too?" "Wow! He's just like Gohan and Trunks!" "Maybe he's that one person." they all start exclaiming.

'that one person'? What one person?

"He is!" huh? "What are you people talking about?" I ask them all.

A young man speaks "We've hear rumors about some person who can fly and do all that other stuff Gohan and Trunks can. He went around the world trying to save everyone from those androids. Are you him?"

"That's him alright." Gohan tells the small village. If he weren't one of the last hopes of this dying planet, I would kill him.

Doing my best to ignore everyone else, I work on those trenches.

A while later…

The trenches are done and we're almost done with getting the town electicity. The electicity will be pretty basic, just enough to get some marginal heat and lighting, nothing much. But it's better than nothing.

Done! "Gohan! You guys done?" I ask. "Almost!" I fly over and help. We finish up pretty quickly.

"Now lets get that road done." I say. Gohan looks thoughtful. "You keep thinking while I make a path." I tell Gohan. I then float into the air and start using a weak ki attack to scorch a path to the nearest forest. Once I do that, I then use my telekinisis to force the burnt remains out of the path.

"How will we pave it?" Gohan asks. "How about we get some of that concrete that's laying all over the place and melt it. Then we can pour that onto the path." I offer. "We can do that. But how will we pour it?" Gohan looks thoughtful again.

"With a giant bowl!" Trunks yells out. "Do you see a giant bowl anywhere?" I ask Trunks humorously. "YEAH!" Trunks points behind me. Gohan and I both turn and see the remains of a water tower.

"Why the hell not?" I ask with a shrug.

About an hour later…

I really had no idea a water tower can hold melted concrete. Of course, I was the one who was forced to pour it. Metal is pretty damn good at conducting heat, and I was the only one there who can't feel pain. Gohan will pay for that when we spar…

We're all back at Capsule Corporation. And I have cool towels wrapped around my hands. Pain or not, I still had burns that needed some tending.

"How are you doing?" Gohan asks me. "Worse than if I forced you to pour that thing." I reply grinning. Gohan smiles back.

"Oh shit!" Gohan exclaims. Gohan, cussing? It sounds very strange coming from Gohan. "What?" "I was supposed to meet someone about five minutes ago!" "Who?" "A girl." "Then go." I tell him. He goes alright. World's going to hell but he still has time for a social life. Whatever.

"Where was Gohan going in such a hurry?" Bulma asks from somewhere near the front door. "To meet someone." I respond. Bulma shrugs it off.

"What's for dinner?" Trunks asks Bulma. "I'll find out when I start cooking." "Start cooking mom!" Trunks orders in a jokingly way. Sort of amusing, really.

With little else to do, I take a walk outside. The world is in a very sad shape right about now. I wonder if Kami's Palace is still floating around? I take off.

Within minutes I arrive at the floating palace. No sign of Mr.Popo. After some searching, I find that Mr.Popo sealed himself up to wait for the next Kami. Whatever suits him, probably better than watching this planet die.

I walk over to the edge of the giant platform and look down upon Earth. No longer does it look as beautiful as it used to. It's still a great sight, I'll admit that, but the sky seems more grimy, and if you look hard enough you can see the effects of constant battle and destruction on the planet's surface.

As always, this is a good place just to relax. Then I remember I still have those towels, I drop them on the platform. I remember rumors about some really cool things in this palace. Like a place where one day is actually a year.

I get up and start searching around.

Two hours later…

I found several very cool things, but it is of no use. Only a Kami, or former Kami, would be able to acess these things. Aside from the storage room of artifacts, none of which I want to mess around with after reading up on what they are.

For some reason, I think back to that fat guy with the katana and that white cat who lived in the tower below Kami's Palace. Yarjirobie and Korin, I believe. They had been killed a while back I was told, when they were outside of their tower. I don't have the details, nor do I care.

I sigh and sit on the edge of Kami's Palace. At least #8 and I had the decency to just waste a planet quickly, instead of just letting it suffer like this.

I knock a small rock off of the edge of the platform. If I'm lucky, maybe that rock, which will achieve very high speeds, will smack one of those twin androids in the head, drilling a hole into it's brain, and we'd all have one less problem to deal with. It'd be pretty funny to say the least.

Chapter 66

The next day we wake up and everyone else eats breakfast. I go to the gravity chamber to do some exercising. I throw my coat aside and crank it up to 250G. Been a while since I've used this.

As I expected, I'm a bit unused to the sudden change in gravity, but I adjust quickly and start some warm up katas.

An hour later…

The chamber opens up. Gohan and Trunks walk in and we greet each other. I turn off the gravity and they close the door. "What gravity are you used to Gohan?" I ask. "About 475G." "475G?" "Bulma upgraded this to 600G a while ago." Gohan answers for me. Awesome. "What about Trunks?" "120G." "Not bad for a young kid." I say.

"Trunks, go over there and turn on the gravity and start training." "Hai!" Trunks runs off to carry out Gohan's order. "While Trunks exercises, why don't we do some light sparring?" Gohan asks me. "So… you think you can take me, eh?" I throw back as I stretch "Sure." Gohan grins.

"Go easy Gohan!" Trunks pipes up. "Kid's pretty confident in you." I tell Gohan. "No one can beat Gohan!" Gohan seems quite a bit flattered. "We'll see about that…" I place my sword down on my coat.

Gohan drops into a defensive stance and I match his current power. I leap at him and flip around when Gohan dodges my punch. Gohan's kick misses me and I elbow him on the back of the head. As he stumbles forward, I grab his arm and slam him onto the ground.

"OOOF!" Gohan hits hard. Then Gohan's energy spikes and he flings me off. As soon as I turn around his boot hits me in the face. I fly with the attack and rebound off of the wall. When Gohan punches at me, I duck and uppercut him in the jaw.

Gohan runs straight at me and punches me in the gut. I counter by hitting his jaw with my knee and punching him hard inbetween the eyes. He staggers backwards and I kick him in the chest making him fly into the wall.

"Come on Gohan!" Trunks cheers as I dash right at Gohan. Right as I close in on him, he flips over me and kicks me in the back with both of his feet. While flying forward, I reach back and grab one of his feet.

Using my hold on Gohan, I slam him onto the ground, leap onto him, use him as a brake to stop my own momentum, and then fling him into the ceiling.

Gohan drops on the floor with a loud "THUD!" but isn't out of the battle yet. Shortly after landing not so gracefully, Gohan drags himself up and runs at me.

Naturally, I side step him and prepare to counter attack, but as he passes, he kicks off of the ground, manuvers behind me, and kicks me on the base of my skull. I stop myself just before I slam into the wall and leap straight up. Gohan's foot slams right into the wall I was about to hit.

Gohan flies right after me. "Why don't we take this up a notch Gohan?" I ask as we fly circles around the chamber. "Okay then." Gohan turns Super Saiyajin and I match his power.

I let Gohan catch up and we engage in a rapid series of punches and kicks, with the occasional point blank ki blast. As we fight, our power levels go up to our maximums. Since I have the higer power, I over come Gohan and start pounding on him.

After a bit of that, I let up and we both back up. Gohan returns to normal mode.

"WOAH! How'd you do that Gohan!" Trunks asks with excitement. "It's called Super Saiyajin." "How can I do it?" "It's very hard." Gohan replies vaguely.

"Good match Gohan." I say and Trunks sneers at me, at least, as much as he can. Reminds me of Vegita. "Gohan was just being nice to you. I know he could beat you any time!" Trunks tells me. "Trunks, you should be exercising." Gohan says just to shut the kid up. I grin.

The chamber opens up and Chichi steps in. "You guys want some snacks or- GOHAN!" Chichi totally flips out once she sees her beloved child bloodied up and in tattered clothing. "What did you do to him!" Chichi asks me angrily.

"Just a quick spar." "JUST a quick spar, huh?" I laugh at her response. "That's nothing Chichi. I wish I had data I could show you of spars I had when I was a mercenary. THOSE would really make you cringe." Chichi glares at me. "How much worse can it get?" Chichi wonders aloud "Imagine all out battle with powerful beams and swords. Not to mention broken bones, dislocated shoulders, stab wounds, severe burns…" I trail off. "Come on Gohan, get in a tank and you'll be patched right up!" Chichi drags him out of the chamber quickly.

"You'd really do that?" Trunks asks me and I nod in response. "COOL!" Trunks yells out and continues his training. Despite all of the crap, this kid seems pretty damned optimistic.

I leave the chamber and go inside the house. "It was only a quick spar Chichi! We've all seen Goku and Vegita do much worse to each other in one of their 'spars'!" Bulma exclaims as she tries to calm down Chichi. "Damn straight we have." I throw in as I walk past. Chichi glares at me and Bulma follows me.

"Why'd you go off and spar with Gohan?" Bulma whispers to me, a tad angrily. "To train." "He trains plenty enough." "One does not gain power by just merely throwing punches into the air." I say. "Couldn't you have been a bit more easy?" I laugh loudly at that. "I did go light! What do you expect? Two people who can demolish planets spar and you don't expect us to have any injuries?" I continue to laugh as I walk towards my room.

I lay onto my bed and pull out a CD player. For some reason, I really enjoy music from Earth. At least rock music, I despise country. I play Metalica's 'Unforgiven' and work on my telekinesis.

Juggling objects has become too easy. I make a can float up into the air. Let's see, I've been able to push things around mentally, but have I been able to destroy things? I don't believe so…

I concentrate strongly and start to pull the can apart. Hot damn! It's working. Within several seconds I've ripped the can into shreds and I dump the scraps into my trashcan. Cool.

Using my telekinesis once again, I pull out my sword and start to sharpen it with my ki, since I don't have a stone wheel on me. Besides, if you do it just right, sharpening with ki is much more efficient.

A little while after I finish sharpening my sword, someone knocks on my door. I open it with my mind. "Are you going to help us work?" Gohan asks.

"Sure." I respond as I get up. Gohan, Trunks, and I fly off to another village. Each village is sparsly populated, but there are many of them. I think the Hope City area has the most living people in it out of the entire planet.

"Alright, what we're doing today…" Gohan starts, but then a loud explosion drowns his voice out. "What the hell!" I yell out.

"Hey sis, look who's here!" a familiar male voice calls out. Just great…

"I knew this would be the town to pick. I'm so glad we have such amusing toys in 'our' town!" #18 exclaims. "Your town?" I question. "We pretty much wasted everything else, but to keep ourselves from getting bored, we decided to choose an area to toy with for a long time. And Japan is it!" #17 explains for me.

Trunks seems afraid and Gohan looks pissed off like all hell. "We'll start with this village!" #17 says as he blows up the small town with little effort.

"Trunks, get back home. Gohan, you take #18 and I'll take #17." I order, Gohan nods. "But…" "No arguing. Just go Trunks!" Gohan snaps. Trunks runs off to Capsule Corporation.

I fly forward and kick at #17's face, which he cleanly dodges. Gohan goes Super Saiyajin and starts to fight #18.

#17 shoots a beam at me, but I fling it to the side and kick him in the head. Brushing it off as nothing, #17 socks me three times in the face and kicks me on the side of my head. As I fly back, I shoot a beam at him, which does nothing.

#17 chases me, slams me downwards, and follows. As soon as I hit the ground I bounce off of my hands and slam both of my feet into #17's chest, making him fly upwards.

"HA!" I start a machine gun ki attack on #17. A few hit, but the rest are just knocked off to the side. #17 drops straight down and slams into me. Undaunted, I grab his arm and fling him towards the ground, but #17 goes with the flow of my swing and swings me instead!

I land on my feet, pull out my sword, and fling it at him tip first. My sword misses him, but I use telekinesis to turn it around and it flys at him again. #17 notices the tiny whistling sound behind him. "Huh?" #17 moves and the sword misses him again and I grab it's handle.

"Neat trick." he compliments me. "Thanks." I concentrate all of my power on #17. "What the!" #17 starts twitching. "Come on damnit… work…" I mutter. "ARGH!" #17 yells as he strains against my hold. Finally, he breaks free and the power he used unleashes in every direction, flinging me backwards.

"Damn… you're more powerful than I thought. I'll fight all out now!" and #17 seemingly disappears. Seeing this before, I leap straight into the air as quickly as possible and his fist barely misses me. But #17 leaps straight up and hits me under the jaw.

A foot hits my chest and a knee hits my spine. #17 practically plays pong with me and I can't really do a damned thing. I block a knee but get kicked in the face, I dodge a punch and get kneed in the chest. At one point #17 grabs my left arm and dislocates it, but I just yank it back in place as we fight.

Eventually, I get lucky and am able to get in a few of my own hits. I punch him in the face, knee him in the jaw, and kick him in the throat. But he just counters with a strong beam and it flings me into the ground.

"AHHH!" Gohan screams, but I can't see what happened. I pull myself out of the ground and see both of the twin androids toying with Gohan. Finally, they stop and Gohan drops out of Super Saiyajin and slams onto the ground.

The twins laugh evily and fly off. "Gohan!" I rush over and check for his pulse. Still alive, thankfully but in bad shape. He has a broken arm, gashes all over, severe burns, and a hole in his lower stomach. I pick him up and carry him back to Capsule Corporation swiftly.

Now that I think about it, they must have known they didn't finish the job. Like they said, they don't want to be bored for all eternity. I muse this over as I fly back to Capsule Corporation.

"Here they are!" Trunks yells out. "Oh my God! Gohan!" Chichi exclaims as I push past her and Bulma to get to the regeration tanks. I carefully place Gohan in a tank and turn it on.

"Damn…" I mutter and slump against the wall, not so much out of exhaustion as from the bitterness of such a thorough defeat. Glancing around, I see a mirror. I look pretty bad. Blood dripping from my mouth, a gash over my right eye pouring blood down my face, burns, and a slightly out of place left arm. Not to mention broken armor and torn clothing. Bulma walks in.

"Hello Bulma…" I greet as I grab my left arm and twist it completely back into place. Bulma winces when I do that. "What happened? Trunks ran in and was yelling something about the androids." Bulma inquires. "We went out to work, but the twin androids of terror appeared. As soon as we got Trunks' ass out of there, we had no choice but to fight them." "What about the village?" "Destroyed." I say emotionlessly. Sadness shows on Bulma's face almost instantly.

"Take the other tank." Bulma orders. I grumble about it, but comply. I take off my coat, armor, and sword but don't even bother with the rest of my clothing. The tank fills up quickly and I'm immersed in it's clear, healing liquid.

Bulma leaves us be.

Well, at least I'll get a large power increase from this. Is this how it will go? Countless suicide attacks until we either die or overpower the twin androids? It's definitely the quickest way to raise our power, I won't argue that, but it's also dangerous as all hell.

But then there's another dilemma. Do we do countless suicide attacks in weak attempts to protect what is left of this world, or just stand back to save ourselves but watch as many people die? I can easily do the latter, but I don't think Gohan, or anyone else for that matter, will agree to that.

With little else to do, I relax within the tank and fall asleep.

Chapter 67

Gohan and I ended up spending the night in the tanks. Sometime in the morning Bulma came in and hauled us out.

I was right, our power leaped. I am at 3,750,000 and Gohan is at 3,700,000.

I get out of the tank once it opens and dry myself with a quick burst of energy.

"You need a haircut." Bulma says disapprovingly as I still blink myself awake. I usually don't have problems waking up, but I always seem to have problems waking up after spending a long time in a regeneration tank.

"Hair tends to get long after five years…" I mutter "That's why you need a haircut." Bulma responds. I shrug at that, put on my armor, and pick up my coat and sword. Gohan stretches himself.

"Where are you going?" Bulma asks. "I haven't got a clue…" I mutter. "Aren't you hungry?" "A little. I guess I'll eat with you this morning." I tell her.

"How often do you eat?" Gohan asks as we walk out of the room. "Almost never. My body makes efficient use of what little food I eat." I answer him.

"Gohan! Are you okay?" Chichi asks frantically. "I'm alright mom." Gohan tells her. I find myself a seat at the dining table. Chichi glares at me "You promised Gohan will live." "He's alive, isn't he?" I reply defensively.

"Drop it and help me Chichi. Two half Saiyajins aren't easy to cook for you know." Bulma yells out from the kitchen. "I know too well…" Chichi mutters and walks to the kitchen.

Gohan slumps into a chair across from me. "Hey Gohan." I call. "Yeah?" "I was thinking about the twin androids…" "I know, how are we supposed to stop them?" Gohan despairs. "Easy, we don't." "What!" Gohan stares at me. "What can we do? Answer me that. They are much more powerful than us, will bat us away, and will continue killing anyway." Gohan is silent for a second.

"So you just want to give up?" he asks. "No. But there's no way we can keep fighting them day after day. It'd do nothing but get us killed. The best we can do is just train as hard as possible and only intervene when they come dangerously close to our location." I tell him. "… You're right. As cold as it is, you are right…" Gohan mutters.

Chichi and Bulma bring out a large breakfast. It consists of stored several homemade pancakes with butter and sides of homemade sausages. Since food is much harder to come by, the bread for the pancakes was grown from nearby villages and the meat was from hunted animals. It's still good.

I have what I think most humans would consider a normal serving. A few pancakes, a few sausages, and a glass of orange juice. Of course, Gohan and Trunks have well over a normal serving.

Once done, Gohan, Trunks, and I retreat to the gravity chamber.

"What gravity are you used to boy?" I ask Trunks. "120G." "We're speeding up your training. Get used to 140G." Gohan smiles as he remembers I pulled the same thing on him. "140G! That's 20 more than I'm used to!" Trunks exclaims. "Very good, I see that you are proficient at basic math." I taunt as I turn up the gravity.

"Ugh!" Trunks squats down. "Get moving around and get used to this." I order and Trunks complies. "You'd make a great drill sargeant." Gohan tells me. Is that a compliment or an insult? "Thanks." I say with a grin.

"Nah… he'd be… harsher then…" Trunks says between breaths. Even though he's having a rough time, he's starting to walk normaly. "Oh? What was that I heard? Did you want me to be harsher?" I ask Trunks. "No!" Gohan's smile just gets wider.

I start my warm up exercises and Gohan does the same.

"How long do you think it will take to overcome the androids?" Gohan asks. "I wouldn't know for sure, but definitely not for a long while." I say during some sword swings.

"Don't say that! You can beat them!" Trunks states. "Um… no. In case you hadn't noticed, we got our asses beat." I respond. Trunks seems to just ignore that last comment of mine. "They aren't all that powerful!" Trunks continues with his little confidence speech. Whatever.

After a few hours of training…

"Alright, that's enough. Let's take a break." Gohan tells us all. I shrug and Trunks stops exercising. We walk outside and see some flashing lights far off in the distance.

"That's them! Let's go beat them!" Trunks yells out. "No…" Gohan says. "Why not?" "We're not strong enough." I tell the child. "Fine, if you don't fight them, I will!" "Yeah, whatever. Let's just go inside. There's nothing we can do…" I reply. "But…" "There really is nothing we can do. Come on Trunks." Gohan confirms. Trunks follows us sadly.

"I don't get it! You guys are so powerful!" Trunks argues. "And however powerful we are, those two androids are that much more powerful." I argue back. "Fine. I'll just beat them for you!" Trunks states. "No you won't!" I stop him. "You guys can take them!" "Trunks, Gohan and I fought all out yesterday. We were still no match. I am over five times more powerful than you are, and I was defeated easily. And I was only fighting one of them, let alone both of them!" I tell him, finishing the argument.


	11. Chapter 11

PART XI: A HIGH PRICED POWER

Five more years pass in this pit called Earth…

**Name: #9**

**Power Level: 4,925,000**

**New Characteristics: 26 years old physically. 34 years old**

**mentally. Hair is still in a ponytail, but only goes down to about shoulder length.**

**Name: Gohan**

**Max Power Level: 4,900,000**

**New Characteristics: 22 years old. A bit taller and much broader.**

**Lost his left arm in a battle with #17 and #18.**

**Name: Trunks**

**Power Level: 1,600,000**

**New Characteristics: 10 years old. Taller. Now has a short sword.**

Chapter 68

Five more years have passed and still no success. All survivors have been scattered across the remains of Hope City at least, but they are still hunted down. Also lowering humanity's chances of living is that winter is going to set in shortly, and many will freeze.

Even though we have made significant progress, we still cannot hold up against the two twins of terror. But at least we can damage them, somewhat. We can actually hit back when they go all out, but not nearly enough to kill them.

Another morning, another battle. Those two androids have not let up. But they have not used up their fun either. Humanity lives, though barely. And #17 and #18 slowly kill them off.

This time, they've attacked near Capsule Corporation. We're going to fight them again. But something doesn't seem right with Gohan. He seems so content, so certain. There's a glimmer in his eyes I just can't place. No matter, we need to fight, not do psychological analyses.

Gohan and I chase after the two twins.

As soon as we find them, Trunks lands with us. "What the hell are you doing here?" I ask angrily. "I'm going to help!" "The hell you are! Get back home now!" I order. "No! I will help you guys beat the two androids!" Trunks says stubbornly. Gohan walks forward and socks Trunks right between the eyes, very hard. He falls down unconcious.

"That's one way of handling it…" I mutter. "They're here!" #17 exclaims. "We were beginning to miss you guys! Just shooting down humans gets boring after a while, you know." "No need to die prematurely." I respond. "Aw hell, you know we wouldn't kill you, at least not yet. You two liven up our days of boredom!" #17 says cheerfully. He says it so cheerfully it makes me sick.

Gohan then flares up in power and socks #17 right in the face. I pull out my sword and join in. #18 throws herself into the fray as well. This is not the organized battles we've had before, where we fight off in pairs. Now we just slam our fists into the nearest enemy. I like it.

I kick #17 in the face and headbutt #18. #18 counters with a ki blast in my face, but Gohan punches her in the throat. Then #17 kicks Gohan right in the back. I swing at #18 but only nick her shoulder. We fight on like this for a long while. But, as always, we eventually end up on the losing end and take a beating.

I blind #17 and #18 with some 'ki flashes'. "Let's go Gohan! Now's our chance!" I tell him. "No!" "What?" "I'm tired of watching them kill, tired of running, they die now!" Gohan says sternly. "Damnit you fool! They won't be blinded long! Let's go, it's better than dying!" "Maybe death is better…" I hear Gohan mutter.

"Uhn…" #17 mumbles, the twins start to recover. "SHI-NE!" Gohan rushes at them both. "IDIOT!" I scream as I try to back Gohan up. #17 looks up and grins. Right before Gohan lands a decapitating blow, #17 shoves his fist right through Gohan's chest and snickers.

"No…" I run over to try and make #17 pay in his own blood, but #18 kicks me right on the base of my skull, knocking me down.

"Not so fast. I won't kill you, just out of the fact you're one of us, but you aren't gonna be moving!" #18 tells me as she bludgeons me with her fists. I try to fight back but she dodges most of my attacks, and the ones that do hit don't faze her. Of course not, she's like me. She does something rather unplesant to my right leg. #18 then uses me for some sort of target practice by pinning me with her boot and shoots me with strong finger beams. Then a glowing ki blade forms around her hand, and she smiles. My fight is in vain and eventually, my body just shuts down on me…

Light pours into my eyes. And I hear sobbing somewhere near me. Crap, another orphan or something, it's sad to watch families die, but I really don't want to deal with some sobbing orphan right now. Then all of the recent events hit me. Shit…

I pull myself out of the dirt and look around. Trunks kneels over Gohan's body, which is stiff as a board. I'd imagine that Gohan would die after that fatal hit.

"WHY!" Trunks screams at no one in particular and his hair flashes gold. "WHY DAMNIT! WHY!" lightning stricks down in the distance and Trunks goes Super Saiyajin. His power registers as 3,125,000 instantly. That doesn't matter though.

I try to walk over, but my right leg doesn't comply. Looking down, I notice that it's been twisted pretty badly. So then I work with what I've got and limp over to Trunks.

I try to talk, but the blood in my mouth makes it hard. Swallowing the blood, I speak up. "Come on Trunks, let's carry him back…" "WHY DID HE HAVE TO DIE! Why…" Trunks drops out of Super Saiyajin mode and passes out. I sigh.

Flying both Gohan's body and Trunks with the last of my strength, I curse Gohan mentally. That fucking idiot, why did he do it? We'd have a chance in time, all we were supposed to do is drive them off. I'm tired of this too damnit, but I'm not running off and practically committing suicide! They run off after they have their fun with us, and he knew it, so why not just get them away and live on? Didn't he think of what his death would do to others?

I then remember what his last words to me were, "Maybe death is better…" he had said. Selfish asshole. What about Trunks who practically looked up to Gohan as his hero? Or his friend Bulma? And what about his mother Chichi, who now has little, if anything, to live for? Selfish bastard.

I land at Capsule Corporation and drop the bodies, since my battered form can hardly hold itself up. I feel no pain, but my body knows when it needs some damned rest. Resisting the urge to just let gravity take hold, I hold my body up using my sword as a crutch.

"Gohan? Trunks? #9?" Bulma calls out. I don't bother responding, but instead sway on my sword as I try to keep myself balanced. Bulma walks outside, drops her coffie cup, and gasps wordlessly. The cup shatters on the patio. "What's wrong Bulma?" Chichi asks from inside. Oh shit, she shouldn't have to see this crap. But Chichi walks out anyway, and screams.

"GOHAN!" she rushes over to her dead child and starts crying hystarically. "W-what happened?" Bulma asks quietly. Why do I always have to give the news? Ah well, why should I complain? I'm not the one who lost a child.

"We fought the two androids…" I start to explain sounding a lot better than I look "… Gohan did a suicide attack on the two and I tried to help him get out. Instead he was killed before I could help and I was pummeled to unconsciousness. Trunks had followed us earlier, but Gohan had knocked him out just to keep him out of the fight. Later he woke up and saw Gohan's dead body. He got so pissed he went to Super Saiyajin, and then passed out." Bulma stares at me.

Now I understand why Gohan seemed so content, so confident. For him, this was to be the last battle, either they die or he does. He wanted it to end that badly.

"YOU BASTARD!" Chichi screams at me. "You said he'd live! DAMN YOU!" Chichi starts hitting me while Bulma just stares. Finally Chichi stops hitting me and just drops to her knees and crys again.

I try to limp inside, but my body gives out before I can and I drop to the ground. "Damnit…" I mutter as I lay on the grass a few yards away from the patio. Bulma walks over and tries to lift me up, but can't handle my weight and she has to drop me back down. That metal skeleton of mine isn't exactly light. "Thanks anyways…" I tell her as I try to pry myself up again, but fail. "This has been one fucking bad day… I think I'll just lay here…" I mumble. My twisted leg, various small ki blast holes, bloodied skull, and slashed torso will eventually heal… I wish I had that infinate energy thing just so I can lift my body up into the air and fly inside.

"You need to get into a tank." Bulma says. She then walks inside and gets some robots to pick me up and carry me inside. Not so carefully, the robots drop me into a tank. Thankfully, I can't feel pain, or I would destroy the two robots for increasing my misery. Bulma takes my coat and sword out so they don't get ruined.

The tank fills up with that clear healing liquid and I let my body just shut down.

Chapter 69

After a long while, Bulma takes me out of the tank and I'm mostly healed. But a large gash on my chest didn't heal quite right, and seems like it might be a permanent scar. No matter.

I walk around a bit to stretch myself. My leg seems to be fine, as well as everything else. Bulma walks out without a word and I follow.

Chichi is still sobbing over Gohan. Bulma tells me that Trunks is in his room now, probably sleeping.

With little else to do, I walk towards the gravity chamber. "You're just going to go off and train more?" Bulma asks me with disgust. "Yeah, I am. How else am I supposed to get enough strength to kill those damn androids?" I respond while still walking towards the chamber.

When I enter I turn up the gravity to 675G and train hard. It's now been upgraded to 800G.

I have a hard time adjusting, but I will adjust. My power has significantly increased to 5,275,000. At least I got that much from this day of hell. I wonder what Trunks new power is? Ah, I'll find out much later.

I train for hours on end…

That's enough. I turn off the gravity and go inside. By now it's night and it seems almost everyone is asleep. I sit on the couch, drape my coat over the couch, and let out a sigh. Things are not going well.

"Do you know why he did it?" Bulma asks from somewhere. It startles me for a second. Damn, I wasn't even paying attention. Then Bulma turns on a light and walks into the living room.

"I'm pretty sure he was just tired. Tired of fighting those bastards all the time, tired of running, tired of watching people die and do nothing. Tired of his life in general." I explain.

"That doesn't sound like Gohan. He'd think of what effect it'd have on others first." Bulma argues. "Sometimes, when one is that tired, and that pissed off too, people just don't think clearly." I respond.

"Have you ever gotten to that level?" Bulma asks me. I think for a moment. "Yeah, I guess so…" "When?" she continues. Normally, I'd stop it right there, but right about now I really don't care or mind. "If I were thinking clearly when I realized Freeza had killed #8, I probably would have waited for a better chance to kill Freeza, instead of rushing off to fight him. How foolish of me…" I tell her. "Krillin told me about the fight with Freeza, he said he had transformations and each one gave him more power. How could you have known?" Bulma throws at me. "I can read maximum power levels, I knew how powerful he was." Bulma doesn't say anything for a while.

"Will that happen to you too? Will it happen to Trunks?" Bulma asks me worriedly. "I doubt it would happen to me, I made a living out of war. And it would probably not happen to Trunks either, since he grew up in this world." "Then why-" "Gohan though, he was not used to such things as Trunks is, he did not make a living of war as I have, and he got tired of it all." I cut in.

"Do you say you enjoy this?" "In a sense…" Bulma looks sickened. "I enjoy it for the battle, but I don't take any entertainment from the deaths of humans." I finish. Bulma gets up and walks away, turning off the light as she leaves.

As sad as this all is, we have to go on. Tomorrow, I will get Trunks training, we don't have time to mourn in this world.

All that power, but at what price? Trunks had gotten much more powerful but had lost his mentor. A high priced power indeed…

Chapter 70

I wake up the next morning and dress wondering how bad today will turn out. When I'm fully dressed in my spare armor, I walk out into the kitchen area.

Bulma and Trunks are eating breakfast very sollemnly. "Where's Chichi?" I ask Bulma. "She went back home." Bulma tells me. I sit in the living room and wait patiently.

A little while later, Trunks walks out and sits on the couch with a very morose look. "Trunks?" he doesn't respond. "Trunks, let's go and get some training done, okay?" I ask quietly. He doesn't even glance at me. "Trunks?" "I don't want to." he responds, his voice full of sadness.

"Look, we have little time to grieve. The sooner we start training again, the sooner we can stop this slaughter." I tell him as lightly as I can. "I don't care." he whispers. "Trunks, you are needed. If we don't both work together, many people will continue to die." "I don't care…" "So you will sit and mope for the rest of your life?" I ask, still lightly, but a bit stronger than before. He doesn't answer me. "If we work together, not only can you help stop those two monsters, you can have your revenge." I reason, Trunks looks at me.

"I guess you're right…" he sighs. "Let's go." I tell him and he gets up and follows me to the gravity room.

"I'm going to turn up the gravity, to compensate for your new level of power." I tell him once we enter. I walk to the gravity machine and turn it up to 250G, and Trunks buckles under the weight for a bit, but seems to adjust quickly once he turns Super Saiyajin.

"I'm, so much more powerful…" Trunks says with wonder, he seems to have some hope back in his voice. I turn up the gravity to 300G, but he doesn't have a whole lot of trouble. "How powerful am I compared to you?" "Want numbers?" "Uh… sure." "I'm at 5,275,000 and you're at 3,125,000." I inform him. "Oh…" he says with disappointment. "Don't worry Trunks, you will get much stronger, I'll see to that." I say to lift his confidence.

"Had you ever lost someone?" Trunks asks me innocently. "Yeah, why?" "What did you do about it?" "I worked on getting revenge." I respond. "You didn't cry or anything?" Trunks inquires with the same innocence. "I didn't have time for that, I took it all out with my fists." I tell him.

Trunks then starts doing some exercises and I do the same. Life seems so much easier to deal with when you're actually doing something with it.

Trunks pulls out his sword and starts practicing moves with it. I watch him. "Who taught you to use that thing?" Trunks looks at me. "Uh, no one." No one? He's pretty damn good for being self taught.

"You're good, you know. How about we have a sword fight?" I offer. "A sword fight? But we can get injured, and you're much stronger." "We have regeneration tanks for injuries, and I'll match any power level you fight with, but not go over or under." "Really? Okay then." Trunks says and I pull out my sword.

Trunks attacks first, and I parry the attack. He swings again, but I duck and stab towards him, but he dodges it. Then I do several quick swings at his torso, which he blocks and then thrusts at me. I parry his thrust and leap over him.

As I bring my sword down, Trunks turns around and guards himself from the attack with his sword. Our swords then lock together and we both push, trying to overcome each other. As Trunks pushes, I then sidestep and hit his head with the handle.

"Ouch!" Trunks yells out, but then swings his sword at me. I duck and bring up my sword, but he's gone. I feel his sword handle hit the back of my head, and I turn around. Trunks looks surprised for a second, but then blocks my next swing.

Trunks sidesteps me, and then smacks my hand with his sword handle while kicking my sword blade. My grip loosened slightly, but it was enough to make my sword fly out of my hands.

But using my telekinesis, my sword flys back into my hand. "Nani?" I leap forward and thrust, but he parries my attack.

Trunks is damn good for being self taught, but I see some prime openings. I feign a swing towards his legs, and as he blocks, I pull back and smack him in the forehead with my sword handle.

"OW!" Trunks staggers back. "You're damned good." I say as I sheathe my sword.

And this sets the pattern for each day…


	12. Chapter 12

PART XII: TIME LEAPER

Six years later…

**Name: #9**

**Power Level: 6,125,000**

**New Characteristics: 28 years old physically. 40 years old**

**mentally.**

**Name: Trunks**

**Power Level: 4,900,000**

**New Characteristics: 16 years old. Taller and more broad.**

Chapter 71

"Are you mad!" I yell at Bulma. "Not at all! This may be our last chance!" "Do you know what you are dealing with! You want to fuck with the very fabric of time!" I'm not very happy with this.

Just recently, Bulma told me her idea for a time machine, and how she is almost finished. But I don't like it one damned bit.

"I know what I'm dealing with!" "No, I don't think you do. If you did, you'd scrap this right now! Who knows what the hell will happen? Maybe time will change for the better. Maybe we'll be in an infinate loop! Maybe things will actually get WORSE! There are too many ifs Bulma! It's not worth the risk!" "And what do we have to lose #9? Answer me that!" "Plenty! There's still a human population out there. And in time Trunks and I will kill those damned androids. Not to mention that things can end up worse! Who knows what will happen when you mess with time! NO ONE! That's who!" I argue.

"I shouldn't of even told you about this…" Bulma mutters. "No, you shouldn't of even started this foolish project!" "What the hell are you two arguing about!" Trunks hollers at us both.

"Well Trunks, I've come up with an idea…" I slap my hand on my forehead "Ah shit…" I murmur. "Shut up!" Bulma yells at me. "Anyway, I have this idea. I'm almost done with it, it's a time machine! You can go back in time and stop the androids before they destroy this world! Unfortunatly, Mr.Pessimistic here doesn't belive it will work!" "No! I belive your damn machine will work, I'm just afraid of what it will screw up!" I shout.

"What about the risks?" Trunks asks. I silently thank whoever was in charge of that boy's genetics for giving him a SENSIBLE head on his shoulders. "If it works, it's guaranteed to stop the androids…" Bulma reminds him. "What are we waiting for!" Trunks asks excitedly. Then again, maybe he's not all THAT sensible…

"FINE! Go right on ahead and screw this world over! But I will have no part in it!" I yell in defeat. "That's fine, your help isn't needed." Bulma mocks. I growl in frustration.

"Oh come on #9! What do we have to lose?" Trunks asks me while Bulma smiles in triumph. "You take after your mother far too much…" I respond.

"The machine will be ready this afternoon Trunks." Bulma informs him. "But make sure you don't screw up the coordinates, it only has enough energy for one round trip." she warns.

"Here Trunks. Give this medicine to Goku, so he won't die from his heart disease. Warn them of the androids and then come back." Bulma instructs.

They eat breakfast and Trunks starts to pack.

"Trunks, I would like to know, what in the hell do you need a damned refrigerator for?" I ask. "I might get thirsty." "Why do you have twenty cans in there?" "There might be others who are thirsty." "Whatever…" I mutter as I reach in and grab a soda.

"Hey!" "Darn, you only have nineteen cans. Now you'll never solve world thirst sixteen years in the past!" I respond sardonically.

A while later…

"You ready Trunks?" "Yeah!" Trunks comes out with some capsules and fully dressed for battle. At least the fool exercises caution.

He boards the machine. "Goodbye Trunks!" Bulma waves. "It's you two's damned fault if an apocalypse occurs!" I yell out. Bulma glares at me.

Then the machine disappears and I tense up, being prepared for anything. A minute or two passes… and nothing happens.

"See? I told you it'd be fine! Have some faith…" Bulma scolds. "HMPH!" I respond. Bulma grins in victory.

"Shouldn't he be back soon?" I ask. "Nope. The machine still has a link to this time, so he'll be gone for as long as he stays in the past." Bulma explains.

"Uh… Bulma?" "Yes?" "One problem with your whole plan…" "What?" "If it really worked out, wouldn't everything be fixed? Like those buildings over there?" I point to some wrecked buildings in the distance. She stares out of the window for a few seconds. Then she laughs.

"I thought this might happen! All that I achieved was to make a separate time line!" she tells me. I'm able to figure that one out quick. So now there's a separate time line where Trunks went into the past and helped out everyone, but our time line is still the same and jack shit happened for us. "Great…" I comment.

We kill some time. A few hours later…

The machine reappears. "I'm back!" Trunks greets as he walks in "Congratulations! The whole trip didn't do jack shit!" I greet back. "What?" Trunks asks in surprise. Then Bulma explains the whole split time line theory to Trunks while muttering about me needing some tact.

Trunks sighs. "Hey Trunks, you were able to go back and meet them, right?" I ask. "Yeah…" "That means when the machine is charged again, you can go back and train with them. I'm quite sure you can get better training there than if you remained here." I suggest. Trunks face brightens up.

"But it takes a year or so for the machine to charge up again." Bulma interjects. "A year minimum? Shit…" I mutter. "I've been working on this a LONG time." she tells us.

"Well Trunks, did you meet me?" I ask him. "Yeah. The first thing you said was 'Who the hell are you? And why are you a Super Saiyajin!'" Trunks quotes. "Yeah, that was me." I respond.

Then Trunks tells us of how he fought Freeza and everything else.

"Heh, I'd imagine Freeza was damned easy. To think we were so frightened of him all that time ago…" I say.

"But the strange thing, is that Goku was able to match my power easily." Trunks throws in. "WHAT!" "Yeah." Trunks confirms. "Why are you so surprised?" Bulma asks. "Back then, Goku wasn't anywhere near the power Trunks is at now! Hell, he never reached this level of power! Something must have gone wrong…" I look at Bulma, but she merely shrugs.

Chapter 72

Some weeks later…

Things have been going pretty well, actually. The twin androids haven't attacked for awhile, for whatever reason I can't fathom, but we're enjoying it while we can. Which leads to Trunks and his social life. I wasn't even aware that one could have a social life in this world, but apparently Trunks can.

"She wants me to go somewhere with her for a while, but I don't think Kassan will approve." Trunks explains.

"So in other words. You can't even lie to screw a girl." I say very bluntly. Trunks blushes immediately. "It's not like that!" he protests. I guess I'll help the guy out.

"Fine! I'll take care of it…" I say in exasperation. "How long do you plan to be gone?" "A few days at most." Trunks responds.

"We're going on a training trip then!" I tell him. Trunks looks confused for a second, but then catches on. "I don't want to lie to Kassan!" Trunks complains. I stare at him for a second.

"Then what the hell do you want me for!" I ask loudly. "I want you to help convince her." "You said it yourself, she wouldn't approve. And there's nothing I can say that would change her mind!" I argue.

"Fine… wait… let's just make it a vacation or something." Trunks suggests. I shrug. If he wants to go with a less convincing argument, I won't stop him. "When were you planning on leaving?" "Today." I get up and go find Bulma. Trunks follows.

She's in her workshop. "Hey Bulma!" I call out. "Yes?" "Trunks and I are going on a vacation. We'll be gone for a couple days. Give or take a day." I inform her.

"What? A few days?" "Yes. The androids haven't attacked in a while. And we feel like taking a vacation somewhere." I say. "Where will you two go?" "We'll find out when we get there?" "But-" Bulma tries to argue. "What is there to lose?" I interject, quoting her.

"Oh fine! Take your stupid trip then." Bulma says in defeat. I leave with Trunks.

"Whenever you're back from whatever you do, meet me first at Kami's Palace." I tell him. "Kami's Palace?" "Do you know where Korin's Tower is?" "Uh… yeah. I think I've been shown it once a long while ago." "Go up, FAR up." I say. "Oh! And by the way… you are going to be the one explaining what we did on our vacation, not me." I tell him and leave.

Within several minutes, I land at Kami's Palace. It still looks just the same as before.

I peer over the edge to see if I can see the activity of the androids. From what I see, it seems they're just touring the world for survivors. If I could, I'd spit on them from here. But I can't pinpoint their location anyway, I'm just estimating from the faint flashes of light I see on the surface.

I try to open up the Room of Spirit and Time, which is what I found that room where one day is a year is called, just for the hell of it, but it doesn't open, as expected.

Shit, I'd become this world's Kami if I could, just for the training from the room and those Dragonballs. But not only do I not even know how to become a Kami, is someone who was a mercenary for half of his life and had killed billions of people even allowed to become Kami?

Ah well… I'll just use this time usefully then. I then start training myself, since I have nothing better to do.

A few hours later…

Man, I'm bored. And I really don't feel like training for a few days straight. I look down on the planet below. I wonder how the rest of the world fares?

That's an idea. I can go down and tour what's left of this world. It's certainly better than sitting on my ass for 72 hours. Not to mention it's been a while since I've checked up on this world. I occasionally go around and see what's left of cities in my spare time.

Without any particular aim, I drop down to some town in Japan.

Not a whole lot different than I expected. Destroyed buildings, homeless people, the reek of death in the air.

"Devils! Flying devils in the air!" some insane man screams out while staring into the sky. Sounds corny, but just seeing someone so out of it is what is scary. "DEVILS!" he screams as drool pours down his chin. His eyes are dilated, and he's shaking all over. Hasn't shaved for months and is only dressed in rags. It's a very sad sight.

I walk down the street trying to ignore the madman. This is one of the cities that was hit bad. And not by androids. Once ravaged by those two twins, this city went into a downward spiral. Poverty hit hard and many were homeless. Everyone struggles to live.

"Gimme your goods, rich man!" some punk orders me as he puts a knife to my throat. I sigh. "Yeah! That's right, it's all over now. Gimme somethin of value! And I don't want no gold either!" he warns.

People prey on the rich, but rich doesn't mean money. Heh, not at all, or I wouldn't of even been given a second glance. If you're rich, that means you have food, clothing, and possibly even shelter.

"I have nothing to give. And I will not strip naked for you." I respond to the theif. "Then your blood will spill!" he tells me. I smack the knife out of his hand and walk away. No reason to kill him, he was just trying to survive.

"FUCKIN A!" I hear him scream. "Don't tell me you don't have shit to give!" he yells as he picks up his knife. "Rich men have shit to give damn you! I've got a fuckin family and we're all starvin and cold, and you say you don't have jack shit to give!" I stop walking and remove my sword and its sheath from my coat.

"Here." I take off my coat and throw it at him. He looks at me surprised for a second, and then runs off. I attatch my sword sheath to my belt. Maybe that coat will give someone some warmth tonight. I can get another.

I continue walking down the street. People stare after me from the shadows. Probably because I'm clean, clothed, and armed.

"Mighty nice sword you have there." some woman comments. "Thank you." "I'll trade you for it." she offers. Occasionally, people can locate the 'true rich', who still have homes and will trade out food, clothing, or shelter for other possessions, like my sword.

"No thanks." I reply, but then she pulls out a gun. I stare at her as she pushes the gun barrel to my temple. "Now gimme the sword. I tried to be nice and trade." I just stare at her. We remain in this position for a while.

"Aw fuck it, the gun's empty anyway…" she pulls back. "But I need that sword of yours 'cause I know some guy who's into swords and…" "I understand. But this sword means a lot to me." I respond. The woman nods in understanding and goes away.

As I walk around, no one else bothers me. But I see more evidence of the two androids' damage to this world. People weep, mourn, curse, mug, and scrape around for anything they can survive off of.

People have lost all hope over the years. No one bothers to rebuild anymore, since all previous attempts have been destroyed by the androids. Besides, now everyone has drifted apart, they're all separate from one another. It's the 'all for me and screw the rest' train of thought nowadays.

People have forgotten people like Gohan, like Trunks, and even myself, who had worked to save this world, and still do. Six years ago, I remember how everyone flocked around me when they recognized who I was. They all treated Gohan and Trunks as their saviors. But now… now we only live in fairy tales.

Humanity lives on, but now as animals, scraping the ground for leftovers and pulling their claws on one another over those leftovers.

I should bring Trunks around to a city like this some day, just so he can see what it's like. Bulma too. Oh sure, they go to Hope City often enough, but that's nothing in comparison. Capsule Corporation helps out Hope City directly. The people of Hope City, while still living a rough life, don't have to worry about shelter, or clothing, or food. They only have to worry about plumbing, weather, and other such things. Those people only deal with inconveniences, but these people can't even worry over such frivolous things as plumbing and weather. They're too busy trying to survive. Hope City and places like this are like two separate worlds.

Trunks and Bulma have never seen places like this, they have no idea. They should have an idea of how bad this world gets, before they try and fix it. That way, they know everything they need to fix.

Hmm… I've been walking around for a long while, and it's getting dark. I think I'll find a place to sleep.

Looking around, I fly up to the top of a building quickly, where no one can reach me. I know these people just want to survive, but I don't want to wake up naked tomorrow morning.

Chapter 73

I wake up extremely cold. That's the downside of sleeping outside, you wake up very cold. I get up and move around to warm myself up. The city wakes itself up for another dreary day.

I leap down and walk around some more. No reason to hurry back to Kami's Palace, I don't expect Trunks will be back shortly. But I suppose I'll go back to Kami's Palace some time later today.

As I walk, I see a large group of people praying to their lord. If they only knew that Kami, or God, is dead. Religion… it is a strange trait of humanity. They lose faith in themselves and give up on living, but they will never forget their lord. Maybe it is one of the few things that holds them together. It seems to help them remain sane, somehow. I continue walking.

"HAHAHAHA!" someone laughs. Four people in a car drive down the street, shooting and running over everyone else. Idiots…

Then again, there may not be much to live for anyway. But it still pisses me off. I leap onto the car and decapitate the driver. "What the hell!" one of the morons screams in confusion as the car slams into a large pile of rubble.

"There!" the remaining three spray bullets in my direction, but I fly forward and shove my left arm right through the chest of another fool.

"RUN AWAY!" the smartest idiot screams and the last two scatter. I shoot a beam through one, and fling my sword into the last one. This type of stupidity sickens me. They just run around and kill people, people that have worked so hard to survive. If they really wanted to die, they would have killed themselves long ago. My sword flies back into my hands.

Everyone goes on with their lives as if nothing had happened. I don't bother trying to get the blood off of my arm, there's nothing to wash away the blood with. But I do wipe the blood off of my sword using my right pants leg.

I know why the twin androids let Trunks and I live. Killing humans is far too easy… and boring.

For some reason, I glance back at the four I had killed. Their weapons and clothes have already been taken. I shrug and walk off.

For the rest of the morning, and a little into the afternoon, I wander around in the city. Then I fly back to Kami's Palace. I'd estimate it's about 3:00 PM.

I find Trunks walking around Kami's Palace. "I hadn't figured you'd already be back." I comment as I land. "There you are! I was waiting for you." Trunks informs me. "Hey, we're on vacation. I'm allowed to wander about. How long have you been here?" "Not long." he responds.

"So where'd you go?" he asks me. "I was just walking about in a random city." "Ah… how bad was it?" "Pretty bad. You'd be surprised, Trunks." I tell him.

Trunks looks thoughtful for a moment. "What should I tell Kassan?" he asks me. I shrug. "Come on, you've got to have an idea." "It's your problem, not mine." "What!" Trunks yells. "What, did you think I was joking when I said you're going to be the one who explains what we did?" I ask with a small chuckle.

"Hey, where's your jacket? And why do you have blood on your arm?" Trunks inquires of me. "I gave away my coat." "I thought it was your favorite." "It can be replaced." I shrug. "What about the blood?" "I killed four idiots." "What! We're supposed to be saving these people!" he protests. "Those four idiots were driving around killing everyone. They got what they deserved." I respond emotionlessly.

"Uh… #9?" "Yes?" "You do know I'm going to just tell the truth, right?" I shrug. "That's fine, it won't be my ass on the line." I say without care. "You told her about the vacation idea…" Trunks mentions. "Yes, and we went on a vacation. I told nothing but the truth. If she disapproves about what YOU did, I can't be held liable." I tell him. "Let's go then." Trunks says, and we go back to Capsule Corporation.

I kick back in the living room as Trunks goes and finds Bulma. I hear some yelling, and then Bulma storms out. "What's all this about?" "What's all what about?" I ask. "What Trunks told me was doing." "I don't know, it's his personal life, not mine." "What was that you said about 'vacationing'?" "What about it? We went on a vacation. Trunks and I went our separate ways. I don't know what he did, nor do I care to know." I tell her.

"How do you think I feel about this!" Bulma screams at me. "I don't know damnit. I wasn't involved in whatever he did that was so horrible." I respond.

"He was off all this time with a girl…" "That's nice Bulma. Not to mention a pretty stupid thing to get all worked up over." I say. "ARGH!" Bulma walks off.

"Trunks! Come here!" Bulma orders from the kitchen. Trunks leaves. Noticing how very comfortable this couch is, I fall asleep.

A while later I wake up from my quick nap. Deciding I should change my clothes, I go to my room. After rummaging around my closet, I find an exact copy of my tan trenchcoat. I change my pants, put on my coat, and leave my room.

I run across Bulma. She seems to have cooled down. "Gotten over it yet, Bulma?" "Sort of. But still…" "Why does it matter?" "I guess I overreacted." she admits.

"Ah well… what did you do?" Bulma asks me as we go into the living room. "I just wandered around in some city?" "Which one?" "I don't know, I just went to a city at random." "Oh. How was the city?" she inquires as we sit on the living room couches.

"Pretty torn up. Poverty stricken, total anarchy, no food, no shelter, everyone in rags. It's much worse than Hope City is." I tell her. Bulma looks at the floor, her face stricken with sadness. "How long will this go on #9?" "Until Trunks and I can kill those two androids." I respond.

"Why didn't you turn out like that?" she asks me. "Like the twin androids?" "Yes." "Because I'm an expermimental android. When I was activated, my past life still had influence on me. That means I still have some morals. Those two are different, their minds were probably totally cleared and they had no concept of morals." I explain to her.

We then continue to talk of the world and androids…

Chapter 74

Many months pass…

The androids pass by occasionally, but their attacks haven't been as frequent. It gives us time to recuperate, time to prepare. I am glad for it.

Trunks and I have both improved. I am now at 6,675,000 and Trunks is at 5,550,000. We'd get even stronger, but we haven't been really fighting the two androids.

Trunks brought his girlfriend over too. Nice person, really. But I think I freak her out, heh. But she doesn't seem like an idiot, which is what I'm mostly glad for. I have a strong distaste for morons who don't even have common sense. Like the four I killed in that city.

I never picked up that girl's name though, but no matter. She has black hair and a nice figure, Trunks picked well. Reminds me of #8. Bulma seems to like the girl enough.

"The time machine is charging up faster than I thought." Bulma was telling me. "It might even be done in a few more days." Bulma says. "You're shitting me? In a few days?" "Yeah." she confirms with pride in her voice. "Actually, if you help me, I might even get it charged up today!" she informs me. "I'll help then." I reply quickly. We both go to her workroom.

"Okay, I want you to grab those two wires…" I pick up the wires she points at. "Grab the metal handles." I do so. "Now charge some energy into it, but slowly!" she orders. I start channeling ki into the wires carefully.

"IT'S WORKING!" she yells in triumph. "Charge it a bit faster!" I obey. Within some hours, it's fully charged.

"I can't believe it worked!" Bulma exclaims. I grin. "I'll get Trunks." I tell her and leave.

I knock on Trunks' door. "What?" "Come out Trunks." "Not now…" "It's important." I tell him. "Can't it wait?" "Actually, I would think you couldn't wait, considering what Bulma has to show you." "Fine…" I hear some movement and Trunks opens the door. His girlfriend follows.

"This way Trunks." I beckon, ignoring the obvious. Trunks follows, a bit annoyed and so does his girlfriend.

"There you are Trunks!" Bulma greets. "What is it Kassan?" he asks. "The time machine is fully charged!" Bulma answers with glee. Trunks's jaw drops. "Now do you think this info was worth it?" I ask, but I get no reply. Trunk's girl isn't completely surprised, Bulma must have bragged to her about it.

"When could I leave?" he asks finally. "As soon as you want." Bulma answers him. "I have some things to do first." Trunks tells Bulma. He and his girlfriend leave.

"Are you going with him?" Bulma asks me. "Nope." "Why not?" "There needs to be someone here if the androids attack." I reply. Bulma nods in agreement. "How long do you plan to have him go?" I ask Bulma. "He told me before that he was planning on one year." she tells me.

A hour or so later…

Trunks boards the machine for the second time. "Take care!" Bulma greets. "Don't screw up!" I yell at him. His girlfriend waves at him sadly. Then the machine disappears.

Trunks' girl leaves Capsule Corporation shortly.

"Well, he better come back much stronger. Or I'm going make him pay during training." I tell Bulma, who smiles. We go in the living room and take seats.

"How's Chichi doing?" I ask. "She's not all that well. Goku and Gohan's deaths really hit her hard. I don't know if she'll ever recover…" Bulma answers sadly.

"I've always been wondering, exactly how old are you #9?" "About 41 years old." Bulma looks at me surprised. "I told you, I age much more slowly than normal humans." "Yes, but it's still surprising…" Bulma mutters. "You're older than I am." "Yes. Looks are deceiving, ne?" "Yes, they are…" Bulma trails off.

"Your life is very interesting, you know. It'd make a good documentary." Bulma says. "One day I might let you do that then." then a thought hits me. "You know, there might be a way to be able to look through my memories with a computer…" I muse aloud.

"Really?" "Probably. But that would most likely tamper with things. It'd only fully work if I were dead or something." I tell her. "Damn, and I thought I had a new project coming too…" Bulma says with mock disappointment. I grin widely.

"Bulma, the day I die, and you're still interested, you can mess around with my android body all you want." I tell her. "You'll probably outlive me." "Maybe. But if I die in battle then, you have my full permission to mess with whatever you find interesting." "Gee, thanks… I think." Bulma responds.


	13. Chapter 13

PART XIII: THE END OF A MAN'S TURMOIL

About half a year later…

**Name: #9**

**Power Level: 8,725,000**

**New Characteristics: About 28 years old physically. 41 years old**

**mentally. Grew out his pony tail long again.**

Chapter 75

I'm now resting on the living room couch after some intense training. After Trunks left, I stepped up my training. Now I'm working out at 900Gs. I'd make the damn machine go higher, but if I do that it will collapse on itself. But the results have been great so far.

I now have hope, after about 19 years of battling with these androids, I have hope, true hope for the first time. Up until now, it'd always been we'll eventually get them, but now I see that it is possible.

A few days ago, I had fought the androids, they were toying with me, but I was actually damaging them. And when they finally decided they would kill me off because I'm too strong, I escaped! I escaped by my own strength! I wasn't just let alone by them, I actually forced my way out! Away, from BOTH of them!

"What are you so happy about?" Bulma asks me. "Just thinking about my last battle with the androids. I have a chance…" I trail off. "Sometimes I think you have the same ego that Vegita had…" I hear her mutter, but I don't respond.

"BOOM!" a large explosion shakes the ground. "They're here…" I say grimly. "Don't be foolish. Come back alive." Bulma tells me. I leave.

"He's here!" #18 exclaims. "I knew that this would draw him out. Now, it's time we finish buisiness. You know we weren't fighting all out when you escaped, right?" she asks me. I know that, but they were pretty close to full power, after all these years of fighting them, I have a good idea of their power.

"Fight me then. Show me what you've got." I taunt at her. She speeds forward and swings, but I dodge the attack. #17 seems intrested for a second, but then goes off to destroy buildings. Heh, it will be his turn soon enough…

#18's fist hits me in the gut, but I elbow her in the face, knocking her away from me. I chase after her and kick her in the head. Then she uppercuts me, making me fly up.

As #18 follows me into the air, I spin around, pull out my blade, and shoot a cresent beam at her from my sword. The beam cuts her across the chest, but it's not fatal. Once she reaches me, I kick off of her chest and machine gun blast her.

"You'll pay for that…" she growls and hits me with her palm right in my face. At that moment, we both go all out.

#18 kicks me in the stomach, elbows the base of my skull, and socks me in the face. She unleashes a few more attacks, but I quickly block them.

For now, she has the upper hand. But I have noticed over the years that I have a special ability that they do not. My power increases when I go all out. All of these 19 long years, it has seemed that their power hasn't even increased at all.

A few more hits go through, but none really hurt me. She puches at my face, but I parry with my forearm and sock her in the face. As she flies back, I leap at her and swing my sword, but she knocks it away and knees me in the face. While flying backwards, I flip myself and kick her in the chin.

We land away from each other and stare a bit. "Very good…" #18 mutters as she wipes blood from her chin. "But we cannot be defeated!" she leaps at me and kicks me in the head. I thrust my sword forward, but she grabs the blade.

"SHI-NE!" I shoot a ki beam through my sword and into her face. #18 flies backwards and I chase her. She blocks my swing but I pull back and smash the sword handle into her jaw.

#18 then machine gun ki blasts me in the chest, knocking me away from her. Getting up, I deflect the rest of her ki blasts and charge up a Bloody Eraser.

"BLOODY ERASER!" I scream and shoot the beam at her. Right before it hits, I see her rase her forearms infront of her face.

When the smoke clears, I watch #18 pull herself out of the crater I made, partially damaged, but still plenty functional enough to fight me.

She leaps at me and feigns a right hook, which I fall for and get ki blasted in the face, making me fly backwards and she follows. While flying back, I reach out with both of my hands, stop myself, and kick #18 in the face with both of my feet.

#18 slowly rises into the air, and I move right behind her and kick her in the spine. She hits the ground with a loud "THUD!" and I land beside her, much more gracefully though.

#18 rolls over quickly and fires a beam, which I knock away.

"DIE!" she jumps at me, but I sidestep and knock her down. This time I run over and hold her down to the ground.

"You see #18, there's one major reason why I've won." "You haven't won yet." "When I fight all out, my power increases dramatically, while yours, does not. As we've been fighting just now, my power has been increasing. You two were fools to let me live." #18 stares at me wide eyed.

"Now, you pay for your atrocities. Die!" I lift my sword. "JUUNANAGOU!" #18 screams as I plunge my sword into her chest, and then blow her head off with a powerful ki blast. I quickly dislodge my sword.

#17 takes notice of the fight once more. "JUUHACHIGOU!" he screams in horror and starts firing beams at me. I turn around quickly and fly straight at him.

"SHI-NEEEEE!" #17 screams at the top of his lungs as he fires beams more powerful than I thought he could. One hits my left shoulder, and blows my arm right off.

I cannot back away now, #17 would never let me leave and I must finish my job. Another beam blows a hole in my right hip. A third wings my chest and rips away the skin there.

"SHI-NE NANAGOU!" #17 yells at me and yet another beam hits, this time hitting me right in the chest and knocking me onto the ground. It didn't shoot a hole through my chest, but it fatally damaged me. If it is not treated, that wound will be my death.

#17 lands beside me as I lay on my back, staring at the sky. "Kuso-tare… you will pay for what you have done…" #17 says quietly. "You only now feel… what you have caused to others…" I mutter weakly. He glares at me.

Calmly, #17 pulls my bloodied sword out of my hand. "Hachigou?" #17 reads what is on the blade. "So there was another of us, was the android dear to you?" he asks. Then #17 plunges the blade right through my throat, pinning me to the ground. #17 spits on me, and walks over to #18's dead body.

Blackness invades the corners of my vision. I am dying… again. There is no way I can be revived, so this is to be it. Ultimately, I had failed, again. I had killed one devil, but the other still roams this Earth. A partial failure, is still a failure nonetheless.

I hope that Trunks will kill that second devil… and finally bring peace to this world. I hope that Trunks will lead a happy life, a life he has never experienced. My vision dims some more.

Perhaps I will be recovered by Bulma, so that she can try those experiments. I no longer care though.

My vision is almost gone, but I am not dead yet. My turmoil has ended. I will be at peace. No more fighting for this world, no more watching this world deteriorate, and highest of all… I will finally rejoin with #8.

Perhaps I will learn of my past life too… but I am just glad, that I will meet #8 again. And I can live with her for eternity, in heaven, in hell, it doesn't matter, I will live with her. As everything fades away forever, I smile.

The End


End file.
